[dd74]

But at the same time, while I try to avoid anti-biotics, I've found I've turned into a germ-o-phobe. I open the public bathroom door with a paper towel in my hand, for example, because you just don't know what you can get off a door handle, or an elevator button, an ATM machine or an escalator railing.

I know another guy who wipes his plate after a waiter has given it to him if the waiter hands the plate with their fingers on it.

And as for common colds our kids pick up at school, my daughter's school has a total "no peanut or peanut butter" policy because one child has a peanut-related ailment.

It's amazing that all these "new ailments" have come up. Or maybe they've been suppressed so long that we merely did not know about them, and only because they're back do we think these ailments are new.