01.21.09
Gesundheit
I’ve never gotten why people feel the need to say “Bless you!” after someone sneezes. Yes, I understand the historical-cultural —even the “religious” thing— behind it, but it is an annoying habit. Perhaps more annoying than the sneeze itself. But if blessing people in this way is annoying, then the one thing that trumps even that is the obligation it puts on the sneezer to say “thanks” in acknowledgement. Why do I, for instance, find myself thanking someone for saying something so unnecessary about so necessary a function?
People who sneeze are not, in fact, expelling their spirits through their noses and/or stopping their hearts; they are, instead, reflexively protecting their own bodies by violently ejecting whatever it was that was posing a threat to their respiratory and immune systems. Thus, as one is already blessed to have that well-functioning physical reaction to such a danger, one would do better to use the German “Gesundheit!” which is somehow less superstititous than it is recognitive. (”Healthiness! Yes! You are exhibiting healthiness!”)
Oh, and Obama’s Israel policy is already sucking.
