In a message dated 99-07-02 01:33:29 EDT, you write:

<< Not long after that, the Reagan administration decided that it didn't like
 the idea of sending out hundreds of thousands of MMWRs for free.  A
 very steep subscription charge was introduced, and so I stopped getting
 it. >>

Sure, blame it on Reagan!  At any rate, you can get now get Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report for free as weekly e-mail.  Do a web search for their
page.  However, in my 20+ years as a subscriber, I have found that the
journal has changed.  In the old days, MMWR really was full of local color -
like the cabbage salad episode [Note to Ken - Muskrat Gommage at the pignic?]
 The story that stands out in my memory was one where a guy barbecuing
hamburgers at a picnic found a dead rat in with the raw hamburgers, but,
since it was dead, figured it didn't matter and didn't mention it to anyone.
A more recent one was someone who woke up in his motel room with a dead bat
on his chest and a bite mark, but was just too darned busy to mention it to a
doctor - and died of rabies 8 days later.

But in my experience, that has become much more rare - maybe once every
couple of months, instead of every week, because the epidemiologists now get
to fiddle with monkey sniffles,  Mad Cow Disease and other global,
plague-type issues.

Signed,  Perfect Health