Today's Word: Mix

He was a small swirl of fur, racing along the floor, dodging furniture and feet as he leaped over anything in his path to chase his kitty sister. He was a blend of speed and single-mindedness.

Ready Made

Hey! No starting the apocalypse until I get my novel finished, okay?

Countries around the world were destroying vials of a nearly 50-year-old killer flu virus Wednesday that were sent to thousands of labs as part of a routine test kit, raising fears of a global pandemic.

The World Health Organization said Canada, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore had already destroyed their samples, while Japan was doing the same. Taiwan and Germany also announced that they had destroyed all their vials.

Nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries or territories — mostly in the United States — received vials from a U.S. company that supplies kits used for internal quality control tests. News that the vials had been sent to the labs was first reported by The Associated Press.

The germ, the 1957 H2N2 "Asian flu" strain, killed between 1 million and 4 million people. It has not been included in flu vaccines since 1968, and anyone born after that date has little or no immunity to it.

There's something darkly comic about a plague that could have killed millions was probably located and stopped through something like a UPS tracking number. Great potential for an ad there.

Same Taste, New Wrapper

Having a plate of General Tso before class last night. In the far end of the dining hall was a large-screen TV airing programs out of Hong Kong. I couldn't read the Cantonese script, but I swear I watched previews for the Chinese "Alias," followed by the Chinese "The Office," and then the Chinese "Friends." The "Alias" was frenetic filmmaking, as if every other 10 frames were removed, making the action leap and jump in manic spurts, forcing the brain to connect the dots to follow along. It was silent-film lyrical in its jigsaw assemblage, rivaling only anime in structure, bright colors, and Asian girls in tiny skirts kicking the unholy crap out of businessmen in suits and sunglasses (the international sign of EVIL).