Gentle Readers, all:

Even as I write this, the Baron is wending his way toward Schloss Bodissey. I know you will be glad to see him out of the saddle and back in charge. So will I, friends, so will I.

During his absence I’d planned to post some items I’ve had on “Hold”. Lots of plans. However, my health hasn’t allowed for the basics, much less any extras. Madre de Dios, when he sees the backed up sludge of email…hours of it since I was forced to stop even opening that page.

Besides the usual ‘meh’ I normally employ to describe my health, there are newer, more unpleasant symptoms in the last few days. Since I’m not often easy prey for wandering viruses, I’ve been at a loss to explain myself to myself. So perhaps what I’m experiencing is a version of that new plague being visited upon the U.S., for which Scott Johnson supplies an interesting explanation, given to him by a doctor: [the emphasis is mine]



This is basically the same virus commonly seen in the equatorial Americas and South America. The very odd emergence of this virus at this time – especially just prior to the new school year and now fueled by the congregation of children in schools – demands an explanation. The only plausible one is that this has been brought here from south of the – now non-existent – border. Although there will be a good deal of epidemiological work to be done before this can be scientifically associated, there is a deafening silence on the part of public health officials and the mainstream media in even speculating about this association. This is not simply a case of being politically selective about the news, it is downright dangerous and could be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the emergence of diseases long absent from daily life in America now suddenly popping up “inexplicably.” By the way the article from the Journal that I cited [linked above] likely represents gross underreporting which is typical in South America.

Obviously, you have to go to Powerline to pick up the links which underlie the doctor’s reasoning. It’s worth a trip because all you will get from the Public Health Departments and the MSM is puzzled head-scratching (and don’t stand near them when they do that!).

One of the sad parts of America’s decline and the subsequent invasion on our southwestern borders is the various epidemics average American families contend with now. When the future Baron was a freshman in college, he suffered terribly from a strange disease no one could identify. He was seen at Student Health, sent to the hospital Emergency Room, given ointments, creams, antibiotics and steroids – and the offer of “counseling” for his “psychosomatic” distress, evidenced by his welts and general sense of unwellness. In the end, he proved the root of the problem himself: he used sticky tape to trap some insects in his bedding. Then he took this evidence to the Entomology Department where MY suspicions were finally and irrefutably confirmed: there was a bed bug infestation in his room. Eventually we discovered their nest in a favorite pillow of his roommate. The latter had probably gotten the original infestation while staying in a motel on vacation.

The college moved the two boys out and into a hotel for a week or so while they thoroughly eradicated the problem. The architecture of his college dorm, where he lived in a kind of tower, prevented the bedbugs gaining access to other rooms.

Meanwhile, the precipitous collapse of fB’s scholastic grades for that term – due to the mystery illness and subsequent chronic sleep deprivation – followed him through the rest of his undergraduate program, seriously affecting his final grade average. Providentially for his roommate, the latter was immune to the consequences of the bugs’ bites. Instead of waking up every morning swollen with bites and suffering from lack of sleep, Roommate wasn’t at all affected by this unholy plague. His parents, though, were very kind, very apologetic. The four of us had the boys leave that tiny monastic space while the grown-ups tackled the problem, followed by the administration’s definitive eradication. For months I’d gotten nowhere with admin or the dorm management. These two parents were graduates of that college, so they got the prompt action which had eluded me.

How many mothers have experienced the eye-roll and insincere sympathy of the “professionals” when they complain something isn’t “right” with their child? In desperation I even took the fB to our family doctor, normally an excellent diagnostician, who gave me that condescending “Now, Mom, don’t worry. I’ve examined your darling and there is nothing wrong. Probably just an adjustment to college. You did homeschool him after all…” Translation: there is nothing wrong with this young man that cutting the apron strings wouldn’t solve”. I do wish I’d gotten my own sticky tape entomological sample and sent it to her…the things we think of later!

The bedbug infestation caused great suffering but was finally solved. And where was the original locus of this horror? It rode in like a plague of locusts on the backs of an earlier invasion of illegal immigrants. Even now when the Baron travels, I makes sure he doesn’t leave his suitcase open or on the bed. He brings along a non-woven bag in which to store his laundry. No use of hotel room drawers, hang up all clothing, etc. This time, I will dust the interior of his suitcase with diatomaceous earth…which, if I weren’t so ill, I’d leave y’all instructions for purchasing online. It may be easier to find in garden supply places now, but back in the fB’s college days it wasn’t so well-known.

When this new flood of immigrants began at the behest of Obama, I wondered what other diseases would accompany these “unaccompanied minors”. Now I think I know at least one of them, up close and personal.