sknaht sorry about being so backward in my thanks but i only just discovered your get well wishes which made me laugh or at least made me try to laugh i seem to have misplaced my lungs although i'm sure they'll turn up somewhere i've resorted to buccal breathing in respectful and appreciative solidarity with our amphibian friends one thing occurred to me in my languid repose we should discuss the age dependence of the immune system you know how young toddlers seem to have super charged immune systems important for surviving day care whereas older people get sick more readily one cute factoid i gleaned from a dentist was that older people get a lot more cavities because they have dry mouths producing less saliva means fewer protective peptides and they suck on sweet lozenges to wet their whistles providing a nice diet of pure sucrose for their unwelcome guests anyway speaking more generally i think that lay readers would be really interested in the whole age dependence thing as it touches all their lives maybe someone there can look into it i'll try to tackle the hormonal thing slinking back to bed p s for someone with very poor memory you're remarkably good at remembering our mcb votes note to self recalibrate scale for tim's self assessments thanks muchly for your own vote of confidence and i'll be happy to relieve you of the more mundane tasks once i get well again hopefully will recover before i do