As I travel to Ohio on my first airplane trip during this flu crisis, I am immediately taken with the advertising possibilities. As a brilliant self-promoter, after all, I am the walking advertisement for good digestive health as the Activia Lady. I realize there is a mountain of money to be made on selling your mask space to the highest bidder. It's a white rectangle, so boring that I wonder, "How long before Pepsi, Nike, and Pepsi have their logos blazoned across germ masks around the world?" I wouldn't be surprised if even Chanel makes its own, with the interlocking reversed C's -- at a premium, of course. Then, there would be the knockoff ones that would get sold on the streets of New York -- and then the people arrested for selling the fakes. Revenue everywhere.
The obvious organization to brand face masks would be drug companies anxious to sell the very medicines that could save you -- but that is so predictable. Far better would be food, fashion and entertainment. A giant 24 emblazoned on your mask. College campuses might benefit. State governments might promote tourism: "Round on the outside, HI in the middle O-HI-O." Wouldn't you pay attention if you saw Madonna dong the splits, again, on a mask? I did love the photo on some website of Speidiho or whatever the f*#% their names are, walking down the beach in Mexico, on their honeymoon, wearing bikinis and masks. The beach. Outside. At least they could have put the name of their show, do they have one? on their masks. I mean they do seem to really need more publicity.
I'm not going to lie to you. Traveling, once a fun pleasure, has now become just plain, excuse the pun, scary. The security screenings, terror potentiality everywhere, see my previous blog: "I have a terrorist's mind." Now we have to contend with germ air/warfare! A man sneezed in the coffee line at LAX this morning and the entire hallway of thousands of travelers turned and stopped, like those old E. F. Hutton ads, and glared at the poor, allergic-to-the-airport-smell guy. I have flown with obviously sick people who have the audacity to tell me that they are "allergic" with green snot and a death rattling cough and a face redder than Danny Bonaduce. I have pointed my fan/air blower toward them to deflect back their germs. Wiped the bathroom door with essential oils, washed my hands in hot soapy water and covered every entry point on my body with Purell, but really, can we stop from getting sick?
I only hope we can trust our government and news agencies to give us accurate assessments. We need to realize every day, not just in flu season, that we are humans, that we are strong and fragile. That we walk in grace every healthy day of our lives.
I thought that new drug Obamacillin would be the answer, but it has a dangerous side effect: Geithneritis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBbAZVw3_7A
You might have added, "to save you from the di-seases they marketed, promoted, and possibly even manufactured, or at least, created the illusion and hysteria around to make them 'real'."
By the way, I saw "Perfect' on a double bill with "Mask" --- that was weird.
You are a fine actress, by the way.
Sorry, I saw someone come out of a coffee shop here in town the other day wearing a mask, and I just couldn't help thinking it. The best a mask could do in that sort of situation is to keep you from sticking your fingers in your mouth because you didn't wash them after using the public restroom. You're going to take that mask off to drink coffee anyway. 99% of the time it is utterly pointless and just makes a person take chances they shouldn't because they think they have some sort of protection. It's only useful if you're interacting with someone who is coughing and sneezing at your face.
Being a sustainable product producing country has it's merits. Hold that thought.
These masks should be totally "green"; biodegradable, with an organic anti viral natural neem herb coating, or some such I'm no expert ;-) on the outside, manufactured from a renewable plant resource: Hemp is more than medicinal marijuana.
http://www.spp.gov/
We didn't and don't elect them they are chosen from a select corporate few, yet our lives are continually guided by them.
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I'd rather trust my common sense - or in what's left of it after the nth-scare - and im my tinfoil hat. I recently even acquired stocks of companies producing such.
As to the mask-space rented out: It's the same as with the lipstick on the pig it that doesn't change the fact that it is still a pig, a mask does not a carneval make.
Thank you and don't let anyone else use that keyboard of yours - the germs! You understand?
The O-HI-O line made me lol, Jamie Lee Curtis rules!
Before the 24 hr news cycle, between 20 & 100 million died of flu during the 1918 to 1920 pandemic, as few were as aware, or knew how to take precautions. There were a few newspapers then & radio - but many across the world were still unaware. The medical community knew much less then about the nature of a virus, or about prevention methods.
Still, I'd like updates to be a brief spot - per 1/2 hr - then get to other news. Remember, we're not all watching news at the same time anymore, so they have to repeat important news.
Even before this, it seems like the same 3 or 4 stories get repeated over & over - no matter how many stations we have. We'll have more of this type of news to look forward to, when we lose our newspapers. Many news services save $$$ by just taking top stories off the news wires - like AP - so who needs reporters in the field, & intellectual journalists...right?
"Just be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for."
A Will Rogers quote