I have a bugaboo about ear infections.
Not the sort that you used to get as a child, when your mother would take a teeny-tiny turkey baster and squeeze some kind of oil into your ear to make it better again.
No, der Brucer and I first noticed this kind of ear infection when we were in Dallas. In the lobby of the hotel where we were staying, we spotted someone holding his ear while talking to no one at all. This wouldn't have bothered us, but then there was another fellow walking in the other direction, and he was doing the same thing.
What were they doing, answering voices in their heads? It was creepy.
By the end of that first afternoon, we had spotted a full dozen people, men and women, too, who were suffering from this malady.
Then, when we returned to Long Beach, it became obvious that this ear infection was not limited to Dallas, that it had spread. People were walking down the street, suffering. People were in stores, suffering. They suffered in restaurants, they suffered in theaters, they suffered while driving in their cars. And it must be terribly painful, because sometimes, if they have to use both hands to do something, they will try to cover their ear with their shoulder, craning their necks over to reach.
These days, I face at least three or four people while at my cash register, who are speaking to the voices in their heads while I try to mime to them the amount that they owe for their purchases.
Please, won't someone in the scientific community find a cure for this horrible disease? The ear infections MUST STOP!!!!!
