June 25, 2010 Cerebus Held Hostage

You can always count on Steve H to still have some vintage stuff sitting in the bottom of the closet, back of the drawer, under the mattress...

Ebay item no. 260621677596
Seller: angelina-steven
Buyer: alchemist57
Price: $102.50

"This is the art for the TV news-like coverage of 'Cerebus held hostage' from issue 27 of Cerebus, which was a satire of the Iranian hostage crisis. The art is ink and zipatone on heavy board stock, with some whiteout. There are notes on which pages in the issue were to use this art, as well as a pencil sketch at the bottom of the board that shows how the art was to be used on those pages."



Just a couple of notes here.

I really like this sort of Cerebus art memorabilia because it is... memorabilia. One of the motivators for collecting, as I have said elsewhere (and maybe here) is to capture and grab those memories from when you first read or saw something. In this case, it's the quite memorable "Cerebus Held Hostage" motif that also reflected the real life situation in Iran.

In recent years, after I was awarded my named Chair position at the Great Midwestern University where I work, this title showed up under my signature. In corresponding with Dave and Ger, Dave noticed this right away, and started to tease me about giving the poor guy's chair back, and how long I was going to hold it hostage. Ever since then, when I send correspondence to DVS, I update the number of days I have held the chair, and include "Chair held hostage: Day xxx" below my signature.

Not that I get correspondence in return, mind you, because I have also refused to sign the you-know-what, although some of the things I've picked up from the CerebusTV auctions have included inscriptions.

Really, I don't like to whine, but this last month has sucked.

Just about 35 or so days ago, when I was in London, I was infected by some Campylobacter bacteria. The modes of infection, according to the authorities, are fecal-oral, person-to-person sexual contact, ingestion of contaminated food or water, and the eating of raw meat. There is really nothing on this list that I am into, so let's assume for a moment that I ate some contaminated food in this third-world country across the Big Pond.

Oh, wait, did I mention it? About 40 days ago, when I first got to London, I was out shopping for food on the first day, and was waiting in the door well of the bus for my stop. There are these big heavy bus doors that open inwardly on some London busses, and they have two positions: open and closed. My forehead and big toe learned about the "open" part the hard way. When the operator re-closed the door, un-wedging my foot (which was fortunately in a shoe rather than a sandal), I pretty much knew my big toenail had been torn off (ask me why I knew this... well, two years ago, I tore that nail off in another accident... well, at least I knew what to do, and that I was up to date on my tetanus shots). But I digress.

When I get infected, I know it within about an hour. I might have commented before about my super-duper immune system response. So, there I was, about 14 hours before a scheduled bus ride to Heathrow and a 7-hour flight to the US, beating a path to the WC every hour or so, and convulsing with the sweats, shakes, and chills. It took mainly a bunch of will power and determination, and a bit of biofeedback, to get me into a state to travel. The air was a little cool that early morning when I went out to catch the bus to the airport... and within a few moments I was noticing a fair amount of fog around me. It was actually the condensation of the warm sweat arising from my exposed skin and hitting the cool air. It's possible I could have said "flame on" and I would have ignited. I really worked at cooling down so that they didn't take one look at me at immigration and detain me!

My flight back to the US defined misery.

A few days of Immodium later, and no improvement... so off to the MD I go. And, did I mention it? I'm about 7 days away from getting on a plane bound for China.

My PCP is really funny, actually. I've had some good ones over the years, here. Well, I need a sample, he says. You can either go poop in this cup or let me collect a sample right here.

Um, could I have the broccoli instead? No way I am going to go poop in a cup.

Assume the position, he says. Like I said, this guy's a riot.

I get my 5-day prescription for Ciprofloxacin ("Cipro") and go home. This is a nasty infection, and I am not having fun at all.

The next day, I am walking across campus near a new construction area. And, let's blame it on being loopy from the Cipro and the illness, but I tripped in a little dug out hole and fell hard on some concrete steps, putting a pretty bad twist on the ankle of the foot with the torn-off toe-nail, knocking the wind out of me cuz I fell and wedged my hand into my lower ribcage.

A kind lady was walking nearby and leaned down to help me up. She was in this really interestingly deliberate mode of asking me if I was OK. "Are you OK? Are you OK?" It was sweet. So I am up and hobbling along, and she's next to me telling me how she just took her first First-Aid class the prior weekend. Their lesson was first steps in rendering aid: leaning in and asking people if they are OK. I pretty much cracked up on that one. I ended up helping her with her homework. I'm sure she repeated this story a hundred times over the next week.

Let's recap. Torn-off toe-nail: check. Wicked bacterial infection: check. Twisted ankle and pulled some damn connective tissue
at my ribs: check. Flying to China in 2 days: check.

Alrightly then. Three and a half weeks later: the toenail is growing in. The infection took about a week to clear, which is normal. The ankle is still sore, and the ribs have finally stopped twinging when I breathe or turn. Although the infection cleared up... no one can predict how long your body will take to restore its natural flora, however, after taking one of these broad antibiotics. For me, the unfortunate answer is: apparently slightly over 3 and a half weeks. I lived on yogurt, fruit, juices, nuts, and dry toast for almost the entire 3 weeks I was in China.

I did get a surprise on the flight back from my Beijing: a gate upgrade to business class. Given that Delta has stopped its comp upgrades for international travel, I am not sure why this happened. I expect the plane was overbooked. At least the flight back to the US was comfy.

What have we learned here?

Keep your toes out from under London bus doors.

Don't eat infected food.

You can actually learn to hate the following 4 words: color, consistency, urgency, and frequency.

Watch where you step.

Eat lots of probiotic foods after taking an antibiotic.

And it is okay not to poop in the cup.

Life... it's a great thing... but you can't weaken, or take it too seriously.