So far, in fact, Swine Flu has taken a total of 20 lives around the world, with precisely one US death. Motor vehicle crashes, by comparison, kill about 40,000 people a year, 115 a day. Therefore, if you are washing your hands to avoid Swine Flu, but you don't wear a seat belt when you are driving, you are either a germaphobe, a victim of media hype or really, really bad at risk assessment.
In Mexico, as noted by the Associated Press and New York Times, there no shortage of flu-based humor. "Did you hear that Mexico has become a world power?" goes one joke. "When it sneezes, the whole world gets the flu." A (very bad) song called the "Influenza Cumbia," by the band Agrupacion Carino is climbing the charts, watch it here if you must.
The surgical masks that Mexicans have donned by the millions have become especially silly, decorated with painted-on mustaches, wrestler mask motifs and stuff like this, which you know the ladies just love:
This retouched version of the 20 peso note is reported to be one of Mexico's most passed around bits of (sorry for the awful pun) viral humor...
And, of course, the inevitable...
But the Grinder has a little Flu humor of our own.
Everyone know the A.A. Milne children's classic, Winnie-the-Pooh. But lately Pooh Bear has been seeing Piglet in a much different light...
On the subject of kids classics, they don't get much better than E.B. White's book, Charlotte's Web. But Charlotte's messages about Wilbur have gotten much less kind.
Finally, same as it ever was, Porky has the last word.
