I don't think knowledge is always such a wonderful thing. What do I gain from knowing about the horror of necrotizing fasciitis? Nothing but another nightmarish reason for an antagonistic attitude toward the natural world, what is laughably called our environment, as Bill Sampson says in All About Eve. I wonder what Gary Merrill would look like overcome with necrotizing fasciitis. Not Bette, I won't imagine that, I refuse. Maybe Thelma Ritter. Definitely George Sanders, if anyone in Hollywood were to contract flesh-eating bacteria it would've been George Sanders. He'd be philosophical about it, sort of half expecting something of that level of absurdity to bring him down. He shot himself in Spain, leaving a suicide note saying he was bored with life, adding "I leave you with your sweet cesspool." He definitely had a point. Did you know he was married to two Gabor sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda? Not at the same time. It was Eva Gabor who was on "Green Acres." Crazy Gabors. One of them slapped a cop once, another slandered Elke Sommer.

Look here, I wash my hands like the next person, I apply antibacterial ointments to cuts and other open wounds, and yes, granted, my chances of being bodily invaded by the flesh-eating bacteria are pretty remote, statistically speaking. But still, the horror is there. Don't you feel the horror? Your flesh eaten away from the inside by an army of rapacious organisms as old as any on this planet, if that doesn't make you shudder I suggest you might not be feeling life to the fullest possible degree. Someone once got it from a rug burn. If the bacteria is present it can find a way in. Doesn't that bother you? Find a way in. The human body is under siege, every second of its life, our life. Border skirmishes of unbelievable microviolence happen on all fronts, constantly, we fight and fight and eventually we lose, every time. Intruders seek any opportunity to pour in by the millions and go to work, the work of reducing us to steaming piles of dead moldering meat, another victory for the forces of chaos and disorder. The Discovery Channel is hell, it won't leave me in peace.