Any volunteers?

Monday night I had a fever. I reckon it spiked somewhere around 104. By Western standards, that will land you in the emergency room. By Indian standards, that will get you three Motrin and a fan. At any rate, I was lying in bed in my sweat and delirium, and I recalled an article I had read a few years back that said brain cells were sensitive to temperature, and high fever killed hundreds of thousands of brain cells with each passing hour.

So I'm lying in bed while my brain cells snap, crackle and pop their way into oblivion, and I'm left wondering: what exactly is it that wills one brain cell to die over another? I mean, if all of them died under the same conditions, than I'd be screwed, right? So, why do some die at 104, while others hang on until 105 or 106? Do the older and sicker ones go first? Or is it the ones around the edges that get a little brown and crispy? Is it some kind of Hale-Bop phenomena, where some of them are up there donning new sneakers and sipping Kool-Aid while they wait for 104 to fly by so they can catch the tail to Neverland Ranch? Maybe it is the ones that just can't take the heat, and to them I simply say, "good riddance." I think we'll never know. Those must be the first ones to go.

The fever broke, and I think I'm on the road to recovery. Thank God for self-medication and WebMD.

Flown by mariposa at 11:25 PM on April 27, 2005