Folks, does anybody use elderberry syrup as a supplement to strengthen the immune system? Anything to share about it?

As a reward for this boring question, I can share that I watched my very first TED talk yesterday. I watched it without sound, and that was really nice. I discovered that the biggest predictor of longevity is the quantity of your daily interactions with people who are non-essential to your life (so not family members, not friends). The second biggest predictor is the existence of profound relationships in your life. The next predictors are, of course, not smoking and not drinking. So basically it’s all about emotional health and well-being. The predictors that are not related to the emotional health (getting flu vaccines and air quality) rank much lower in importance.

When people in China inquire about where I’m from and I answer, heads shake, laughter erupts, and people ask: “what were your people THINKING? “ I’m ashamed because the words, I don’t know, seem so inadequate and small when trying to explain this monstrous mess we are now in.

And you don’t stop even for a second to wonder why people think it’s ok to treat you like this? It’s obviously not everybody who is treated with such casual contempt. Maybe it’s time to take a short break from fretting about the fate of humanity and concentrate on what your public persona is like and why.

Imagine if Trump managed to not say or do anything noteworthy for a month and just let people enjoy low unemployment and steady growth. Don’t even brag about the economy — just go golfing quietly somewhere. His approval numbers would soar, right?

No, of course, not. Because then outrage would be manufactured out of what he didn’t say, out of rumors, out of musings about what he might have said, etc. An addict will find his fix because addiction is located inside him.

Did you, folks, hear the hilarious story about London’s most popular restaurant which doesn’t exist? It’s real funny when a restaurant is all that’s at stake. But how many people treat politics like this and confuse the virtual reality of Twitter feeds and FB posts with what actually exists and matters?

Hillary has spent her entire life being extremely consistent in not taking sex scandals seriously. Bill, Huma, now the harasser on her campaign. She doesn’t care about these things. Hey, if she so placidly accepted Huma, a guy who groped an adult is not a big deal at all.

She simply doesn’t think sex scandals matter, irrespective of how outrageous they are.

Université Laval in Quebec City is being criticized for a questionnaire that required job candidates to reveal whether they’ve been tested for HIV, the date they last menstruated and whether they’ve been treated for cancer.

The weird thing is that they are being criticized about it now and not decades ago. What kind of medieval hiring is this?

It actually gets worse. Read the whole thing.

N Is reading my book, and now he’s all, “You need to tell this to the world. People should know!” And I’m like, “Hey, blogger here. I’ve only been going on about this for years at the blog. People are having nervous spasms when they hear me mention fluidity or the nation-state. Everybody is sick to death of hearing me go on and on about it. So yeah, I’ve told people.”

The good news is that I have a new favorite philosopher who works along the lines of Zygmunt Bauman. His name is Byung-Chul Han, and he’s from Germany. Just one little quote from him to give you a taste:

Information is simply available. Knowledge in an emphatic sense, however, is a long and slow process. It displays an entirely different temporality. It matures. Maturation. . .is not compatible with today’s politics of time, which fragments time and eliminates temporally stable structures in order to increase efficiency and productivity.

So yesterday at the ER, after I exhausted the phone’s battery with batches of text messages telling people who much I dig being on morphine, I decided to watch some TV. I wanted news, so I skipped between MSNBC and Fox, weirding out the nurses and orderlies because usually people are one or the other.

Both channels showed nothing but ridiculous conspiracies. Fox was stuck on some stupid FBI text messages while MSNBC was equally obsessed with the story about how the President wanted to fire Mueller in June but didn’t. It was hours of an obsessive rehashing of these two utterly idiotic non-stories. I tried the CNN but it was identical to MSNBC.

I was eager to hear about Davos, the recent school shootings, something of actual interest to actual lives of actual people. But no, it was conspiracies and nothing else.

Of course, it’s easier and cheaper to go on about these invented dramas than to investigate and report but what a bloody shame. This is reminding me of the news in Russia where the whole country is literally burning down while the newscasters report on nothing but some outlandish conspiracy fantasy.

A horrible thought just occurred to me. Was it culturally insensitive of me to schedule Klara’s birthday party for 10-12 am on Sunday? The party is at the kids’ gym, and I thought that morning is better than evening in terms of getting them hopped up on physical activity and treats.

But now I’m thinking, do people normally go to church at this time? I didn’t even think about it when I was choosing the time slot. This is an expensive daycare. Everybody is a doctor or a lawyer, so how religious can they be, right? Or that doesn’t matter?

The nurse is saying I look exactly like Lucy from I Love Lucy. I don’t know anything about the show but the title so I had to ask if she’s at least a good character. The nurse said she is and asked if I wanted to be visited by clergy. I’m currently hopped up on morphine, so I’m not sure if I gave the right answer.

As you probably gathered, I’m at the ER. I had one of those nausea + chest pain episodes, and this time it was so bad I had to go to the ER. Of course, the moment they heard the words “chest tightness, age 41,” they grabbed me, pumped me full of morphine, and started sticking me into CT scans, chest x-rays, etc. I hate being such an invalid and am now wondering if I’ve been too alarmist. I have tons of morphine back home, so maybe I should have just taken it and stayed home.

At least, I hope somebody finally finds out what causes this because it’s very debilitating and I hate it. But I’ve got to tell you, folks. Morphine is good. I’m feeling very friendly towards the world right now. It’s creepy.