Don't Blame The Hogs!

What's in a name? If you raise hogs, sell bacon or have anything to do with porcine commerce then the entire past week has been hell. It's enough to make Babe the talking piglet blush.

We started out with swine flu -- figures, since the latest strain of flu virus apparently came from some kind of odd mutation between humans and animals and back to humans again, and bird flu was already taken. We could have called it the Mexican Flu, which is what Israel and other middle east nations wanted to do, but the couple who own the only Mexican restaurant in Beirut objected.

Warning note on above: sarcasm is part of this posting.

I suggested in a Twitter tweet this morning that we rename it the Steinbrenner Flu because the entire baseball world gets the sniffles every time the Yankees sneeze. Besides, how can any Indians fan not enjoy the discomfort of the owner of the Bronx Bombers forever remembered with the name of a bug that provides headaches, nasal running and intestinal discomfort?

Unfortunately, there wasn't a groundswell of support for that one.

Now we go back to geography and since the Asian and Russian flu are taken we'll use North American, according to the CDC. The State of the Ohio weighs in with a news release noting they are using the catchy phrase "H1N1, formerly known as the swine flu" when describing the virus.

Bob Evans would be happy, may he rest in peace.