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In Mexico, today and tomorrow are celebrated as Día de los Muertos, aka Day of the Dead. Follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedividerthingie fold to hear what Casa Brillig thinks about this time of year...
Way back in the spring of 1999, Mr. Brillig felt some abdominal pain and - to make a long story short - after four long days ended up proceeding from doctor's office to hospital, where his now-burst appendix was removed. (Before you ask: it wasn't in the usual "spot" so the medical professionals didn't immediately pick up on appendicitis as a possible diagnosis. Which also is why Mr. Brillig changed a flat tire with said appendix. But that's his story to share :-))
Two days later, he's eating dinner getting ready to leave the hospital the next day, when the pathology comes back. Essentially colon cancer, but in the appendix. Dinner goes away, and back he goes to surgery. 20cm of intestine and a whole lotta lymph nodes later, we're told everything looks clear - but since the appendix burst it MIGHT have spread. Well fuck. So off we go to the best relevant oncologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the next six months of Mr. Brillig's life is spent undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. (PSA time: if you put off a colonoscopy because of the eww ick factor of either the procedure or the prep, we'd love to share with you how much fun that stretch of 2009 was, then see if the prep and procedure still sound so bad. Just sayin')
I'm a biologist. I mark survivorhood from the moment he was diagnosed and had surgery. The "eww get it out get it out" moment. Mr. Brillig, on the other hand, reminds me every spring that he was neither particularly conscious at the time, nor in a celebratory mood. He does, however, vividly remember the last day of chemo.
November 2, 1999 was that last day of treatment. Ergo, November 2, 2011 is Día de la Vida around here. Don't worry, you can still grab a sugar skull :-).
What are you celebrating this time of year?
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Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From blue aardvark:
Kevvboy Describes Herman Cain’s memory with a Mark Twain level of snarkitude.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
Protesters at Cantor's speech. GenXangster has a great comment that started a thread worth reading.
In Joan McCarter's Republican senators preparing to vote against themselves on infrastructure jobs bill, Richard Cranium gets my nom for the comment... AND the picture!
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Top Mojo for yesterday, 10/31/2011, minus first comments/tip jars. Thank you to mik for the mojo magic!
1) Like This One? :-) by JekyllnHyde — 186
2) Can I Just Say by JekyllnHyde — 181
3) which one? by k8dd8d — 177
4) Situations matter by blue aardvark — 163
5) circa FDR: by Pluto — 120
6) At least you are getting some of your basic needs by The Truth — 115
7) lol. How would Jesse know? McCain sure doesn't. by real world chick — 102
8) It boggles my mind by heineken1717 — 100
9) Like all other senators, McCain's the 1% by FishOutofWater — 94
10) jt - best of luck beating your cancer by VClib — 92
11) BofA Isn't The Only One..... by snapples — 92
12) He hardly stopped walking, just blew past me by MinistryOfTruth — 90
13) Federal takeover of the dept is a good idea by jtraynor — 83
14) I'm one of the folks doing sound by AoT — 82
15) So this is a case of speaking truth to glower? by DCBlue — 80
16) Denver has a history of bad apples by slouchsock — 79
17) Go to www.boeing.com/careers/jobsEvents.htm by FlamingoGrrl — 77
18) Yes, by TomP — 76
19) misconduct by OLinda — 76
20) {{{Something the Dog Said}}} by blue aardvark — 76
21) I plan on beating the piss out of one thing.... by jtraynor — 74
22) This must be behind Kasich's fury at the traffic by concernedamerican — 72
23) Fantastic! by CDH in Brooklyn — 71
24) I'd have thought he'd say, by qannabbos — 67
25) He's not just the 1%. by sidnora — 66
26) I applied for food stamps a year ago by ssmt — 65
27) Standing up to a culture of "going along" by James Wells — 65
28) 40,000,000 is the tip of the iceberg by FishOutofWater — 64
29) "professional courtesy" by jmknapp — 64
30) In some states you are fingerprinted by Horace Boothroyd III — 63