On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, Ken Follett wrote:

> I love it. I often express that diabetes, which I have, is a slow death.

Where I work, diabetes is constantly mentioned as the exemplar disease,
probably because (1) lots of the respondents in our study of retirement
and aging have mature diabetes, and (2) our Principal Investigator (the
guy my wife refers to as "the Boss of all Bosses") is interested in
diabetes.

So, when someone gives a for-instance about extracting some slim vector of
data from our stupendous hoard, it is almost invariably about some aspect
of diabetic life or death.  (They could just as easily ask about widowed
sisters living together, or income from private pension plans among
African-Americans, or a jillion other things we have asked our respondents
about and compiled into vast databanks.)

Inevitably, I picked up this diabetes-example habit from my co-workers,
but sometimes I worry that the diabetics in earshot or mailshot might
resent having their specific affliction invoked so casually.  I'm too
embarrassed to go back to the BP archives and count how many times I have
mentioned the disease in previous postings.  Thank you (and everyone else)
for not hitting me over the head with it.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com