`The Ethiopians — Hong Kong Flu. Heard on today’s Jamaican Gold radio show, I think this might be the catchiest song about infectious disease I’ve heard in a long time. Part of the “beautiful melodies telling me terrible things” category of music, to paraphrase Tom Waits.
(PS to the folks of the 1960s: in the future, we use our magic-like portable computer video screens to watch recordings of other people’s records.)
Sorry for the icky photo, folks, just wanted to share a striking bit of anatomical illustration! This image led me down the rabbit hole of looking into the art of moulage, casting realistic wax models with “wounds” and other dermatological problems for use in medical training. Obviously a much better way of introducing a classroom full of doctors to diseases than wheeling in an actual smallpox patient. There’s a photo book on the subject called Diseases in Wax: The History of Medical Moulage that I might have to track down. At $180 on Amazon, though, I sure hope that the library here has it…
