Random thought of the day: Impossible Possibility

The dog days of summer are here, but almost over.  I suspect we will post infrequently these next couple of weeks as we survive/enjoy our transition to the 2010-11 academic year.  The thing that most excites me about fall is the start of the English Premier League Football (soccer) season, so I've been reading more about player transfers and transfer rumors than infection prevention studies.  I came across an entertaining Brian Phillips article in Slate that sums up the player transfer period quite well.  I especially enjoyed this quote:

"A really good transfer rumor doesn't have to be untrue. It just has to make claims that it can't support, allowing us to fill the gaps with a fizzy sense of impossible possibility."

I thought this quote could be rephrased or recycled for use in infection prevention articles/editorials or in any other important area of life.  For instance, if you substitute "infection prevention intervention study" in for "transfer rumor", you get:

"A really good infection prevention intervention study doesn't have to be untrue. It just has to make claims that it can't support, allowing us to fill the gaps with a fizzy sense of impossible possibility."

You could also substitute phrases like "research grant hypothesis" or "economic analysis" in the same place.  For some reason, this just makes me happy, which these days can sometimes be an impossible possibility.

Slate Article

Sports & staph: A new twist

A soccer player and coach for Australia's Brisbane Lions are both recovering from staph infections following surgery. While MRSA has become a common cause of skin and soft tissue infection in athletes, what is unusual here is that the pathogen infecting these athletes is Staphylococcus caprae, a coagulase-negative staph species that seems to have a predeliction for bones and joints. As the name implies, it's more commonly a pathogen in goats. Interestingly, although both players were operated on at the same hospital, the organism was not thought to be transmitted there, and efforts are underway to decontaminate the team's facilities.

Boys will be boys OR Swine will be swine

The LA Times reports that Hector Reynoso, a professional soccer player for Guadalajara's team, is in big trouble. Reynoso spit and released nasal secretions at the face of an opposing team member, Sebastian Penco, then claimed to have swine flu. He subsequently apologized but his punishment is pending. So what's an appropriate punishment for faking swine flu?