The dangers of Valentine’s Day are so pervasive and hideous it is difficult to write about them all, so I won’t. Let it be said, though, that from herpes to HIV, lipstick on the collar to lymphogranuloma venereum, lust can kill.
In the South, Mardi Gras ends the dangerous season. Eye trauma from flying beads and sightings of flying monkeys are a constant threat. I have been to Mardi Gras, but this is all I can remember of it.
So ’tis the season to be jolly, to spend time with our loved ones, and to bask in the familial hearth. Bah, hum and bug. TH
Jamie Newman, MD, FACP, is the physician editor of The Hospitalist, senior associate consultant, Hospital Internal Medicine, and assistant professor of internal medicine and medical history, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.