Got the vaccines at noon Monday. That night I was shaking with chills, turned up the furnace, ate some Tylenol, slept badly (but stopped shaking, via the usual sweat bath), got up at 5:30 to do my early lifeguard shift, came home and went back to bed. Slept fitfully throughout the day, and today, Wednesday, I’m fully restored. It seemed a stronger reaction than normal, but we opted for the Moderna mRNA flu shot, said to be 27 percent more effective than the usual one, and so disapproved of by the current HHS secretary that it almost… well, let the NYT tell it:

Initially the F.D.A. had refused to even review Moderna’s application for approval earlier this year, but quickly reversed course after a public outcry. The flu kills more than 300,000 people worldwide each year and was particularly harsh in the 2024-25 season, with an estimated 45,000 deaths in the United States, including at least 297 reported cases in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new vaccine is authorized for people ages 50 to 64. The F.D.A. issued an accelerated approval for adults 65 and older, which allows widespread use and can be converted to a full approval if the results of a follow-up study are deemed acceptable.

If Bobby’s agin’ it, I’m for it. But it did kick my butt. Of course, maybe it was the Covid jab doing the kicking; who’s to know? I keep a record for no particular reason, and this is my 10th Covid shot. :::scattered applause::: Still a Novid, to the best of my knowledge. I/we test whenever we have a cold, and so far, no positives.

And I’m really glad no one needed to be fished out of the pool yesterday morning, because I was operating at something of a deficit.

Moving on! I’m starting to feel more confident about Abdul El-Sayed’s chances in the Senate race, although I refuse to get smug about it. One reason is, he seems to have caught the attention of the right-wing media, but in a way that inevitably makes him look better, in some way. He runs circles around Fox News questioners, and the more he does it, the more they keep inviting him back to drop bombs like, “My name didn’t cost Michigan families $5,600 last year because of tariffs.”

Funnier, though, is this New York Post story, which inevitably was laundered through the Gateway Pundit, i.e., the stupidest man on the internet. The headline alone is great:

Abdul El-Sayed farts in public, ex aide says — and blasts Senate candidate as immature ‘manufactured man’

My brotha! It so happens that I, and virtually every other human being on the planet, farts in public, because farting is part of having a human body, and we can’t be in private spaces all the time. Of course, what this “ex-aide” says isn’t exactly just farting in public. He farts as comedy:

“He would openly do so without warning or embarrassment as his form of stand-up comedy,” Domingue wrote.

“To this day for him, the act of farting is easily one of the funniest things a person can do.”

Ha ha. Many well-decorated humorists would agree with Abdul, but honestly, who cares? His opponent is a Donald Trump rubber stamp, and that’s all that matters to me. Speaking of whom:

WASHINGTON — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers appears to be breaking with President Donald Trump on another key issue less than a month before Election Day.

“Drinking a Labatt and watching the Red Wings, man, it just doesn’t get any more Michigan than that,” Rogers said in a new video ad released on Oct. 7. “Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now.”

The statement marks the second time in recent weeks that Rogers spoke out — albeit without criticizing Trump by name — against one of the president’s unpopular initiatives. This time, Rogers is calling for an end to Trump’s widespread trade war against Canada, America’s biggest trading partner.

The Republican Senate nominee also split with Trump on the Iran war in late September, saying it “needs to end and end quickly.”

The ad was shot in a bar:

The 30-second spot features Rogers wearing a flannel shirt and sitting at a bar stool at Bigg’s Bar & Grill on Gratiot Avenue in Chesterfield Township.

That’ll get the blue-collar crowd, ain’a?

OK, then. Time for me to push this out into the world and start exploring how we might make our gas-log fireplace less of a pain in the ass to use. Happy Wednesday, all.