{"id":8261,"date":"2016-12-18T17:45:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=8261"},"modified":"2016-12-19T07:04:14","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T12:04:14","slug":"holiday-distractions-dirty-pets-and-time-to-vote-for-your-favorite-cartoon-caption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/holiday-distractions-dirty-pets-and-time-to-vote-for-your-favorite-cartoon-caption\/2016\/12\/18\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Distractions, Dirty Pets, and Time to Vote for Your Favorite Cartoon Caption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/louie-jan-2016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-8263\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/louie-jan-2016.jpg\" alt=\"louie-jan-2016\" width=\"321\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/louie-jan-2016.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/louie-jan-2016-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/louie-jan-2016-768x506.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px\" \/><\/a>Many people find it tough to concentrate at work this time of year. So much to juggle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Holiday parties.<\/li>\n<li>Shopping.<\/li>\n<li>Travel plans &#8212; specifically, should we go with\u00a0DEET or picaridin?<\/li>\n<li>Lots of high-carb, high-calorie foods stealing blood from our brains. Maybe too much eggnog or punch doing the same thing.<\/li>\n<li>Kids on vacation, with their\u00a0demands for sustenance, adult supervision,\u00a0and entertainment.<\/li>\n<li>Many critical work support people already away, with out-of-office messages implying that they&#8217;re not reading their email (but you know that they are).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even our pets are distracted. After a crazy weekend of New England weather, starting with bitter cold, then a day of wet snow, and now a Spring-like thaw, Boston dogs and cats who ventured outside today are in bad need of bath.<\/p>\n<p>(And yes, that was just an excuse to show off that magnificent picture of Louie. Click on it for full effect, I <em>dare<\/em> you.)<\/p>\n<p>Plus, you have the distraction of\u00a0our latest\u00a0ID Cartoon Caption Contest, which generated <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/id-cartoon-caption-contest-2-winner-new-contest-end-summer\/2016\/11\/25\/\" target=\"_blank\">so many outstanding entries<\/a> that our powerful advanced humor algorithm was unable to limit the finalists to just three candidates this time. Even after we tweaked\u00a0the settings, the powerful supercomputer churning through the entries kept overheating.\u00a0We almost had to cancel today&#8217;s post and substitute a lengthy rumination on whether you should say\u00a0<em>Mycobacterium avium<\/em> complex (MAC) or <em>Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare<\/em> (MAI).<\/p>\n<p>(Short answer: the former.)<\/p>\n<p>So here&#8217;s the cartoon, plus the top four choices. Vote now before 2016 is no more!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/11\/DocsIgnoringPatient.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8246\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/11\/DocsIgnoringPatient.png\" alt=\"docsignoringpatient\" width=\"526\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/11\/DocsIgnoringPatient.png 621w, https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/11\/DocsIgnoringPatient-300x217.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-40\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_40\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_40_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"25b3b108ce\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"40\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Which is the funniest cartoon caption?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-40-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-126\" name=\"poll_40\" value=\"126\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-126\">\"He was ready to go 6 days ago but I can\u2019t find 'discharge' on the menu.\"<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-127\" name=\"poll_40\" value=\"127\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-127\">\"Have you tried switching him off and back on again?\"<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-128\" name=\"poll_40\" value=\"128\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-128\">\"Just 432 more likes and we\u2019ll be ready for surgery.\"<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-129\" name=\"poll_40\" value=\"129\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-129\">\"Just as I feared\u2026it\u2019s a virus.\"<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(40);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(40); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n\n<p><em>(Drawing by Anne Sax.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people find it tough to concentrate at work this time of year. So much to juggle: Holiday parties. Shopping. Travel plans &#8212; specifically, should we go with\u00a0DEET or picaridin? Lots of high-carb, high-calorie foods stealing blood from our brains. Maybe too much eggnog or punch doing the same thing. Kids on vacation, with their\u00a0demands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1138],"class_list":["post-8261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","tag-cartoon-contest"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}