The Skwib » cordial ebola http://markarayner.com/blog Mark A. Rayner’s irregular and explosive weblog, a daily sputtering of satire, humor, comedy, and odd, odd fiction. . . Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:21:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Professor Quippy: Words Not to Use to Describe Ebola http://markarayner.com/blog/archives/1125 http://markarayner.com/blog/archives/1125#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:17:53 +0000 Mark A. Rayner http://markarayner.com/blog/archives/1125 Professor QuippyI have a quibble with the New Scientist’s headline describing a “milder Ebola strain” recently discovered in Uganda.

MILDER? It still has at least a 30 percent mortality rate, and yes, that is less lethal than the standard form of Ebola, which is normally 50 to 90 percent. But I don’t know that qualifies it for the description “milder”. Less lethal, less virulent, yes, but it’s still the Hannibal Lector-in-a-hospital-ward-of-paralyzed-and-obnoxious-FBI-agents of diseases.

Other words that I don’t think should be used to describe Ebola: cuddly, cordial, genial, piddling, and orange. I’m sure I’ve missed a few there — feel free to leave others in the comments.

And while you’re worrying about Ebola, you may want to check out Archer’s useful FAQ about it, or this cautionary tale, and the Ebola of humor sites, humor-blogs.com.

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