I thought that was a quote from Poltergeist, but trusty google claims it's from the Shining. Maybe both. Blogless Marsha and I had the good fortune to knit not just Italy, but Greece and Turkey as well. Here are the first pictures as proof:
Despite the fact that the Colisseum picture looks like a backdrop, I promise we were really there.
Ten days were on a cruise ship. Now I'll diverge after watching an episode CBC's Marketplace last night. It focused in germs in hotel rooms including C-difficile, E-coli and MRSA, often found in hospitals, the infections from which my mother passed away nearly a year ago. Most disconcerting was the real life example taken from the hotel in which my daughter and I stayed when she had her reconstructive leg surgery a few years back. I am now eating my words of description: a clean, comfortable hotel. Gross.
Back to cruise ships where Noro virus abounds and great efforts are taken to thwart such occurrences. I'm wishing hotels had the same standards. When C and I were discussing this tonight, it brought back a memory of a humorous poem I learned in fifth grade, written by Alex Guiterman (1871-1943):
| THE Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup | |
| Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up; | |
| They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;— | |
| It wasn't Disinfected and it wasn't Sterilized. | |
| They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease; | 5 |
| They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees; | |
| They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope | |
| And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap. | |
| In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears; | |
| They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears; | 10 |
| They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand | |
| And elected it a member of the Fumigated Bandhttp://lifesastitch.typepad.com/_/2011/03/bagels-bananas-and-ginger-ale.htmljavascript:mctmp(0); | |
| There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play; | |
| They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day; | |
| And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup— | 15 |
| The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup. |
Who knew that poem, memorized so long ago, would provide an example of dramatic foreshadowing for today's world? It's enough to turn you into a germophobe and makes me wonder about my experience in San Francisco a couple of years back. I promise the next posts will focus on the more positive aspects of our travels, including the search for the best pizza in the world.
Life's a Stitch 
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