On which side will you Stand when Captain Trips comes?

 Posted by on 30 April 2009  Modern Life
Apr 302009
 

standanimation2

The Stand was always one of my favourite Stephen King books. I’m a sucker for the post-apocalyptic. Now, I’m not the first one to take the “Ooooh, flu pandemic” and equate it to the mythical Captain Trips from that book, but all I did was make a few pointed comments.

You have to admire people who go to the trouble to set up Twitter accounts for Randall Flagg and for Abagail Freemantle, though!

(tip of the hat to Hacks and Wonks)

(Go ahead and click on the animation to see it full size. It’s my first-ever animated gif!)

Grant Hamilton

  • MPot

    Can’t wait for the big desert showdown.

    Anyway, this swine flu is so overblown. Some 3,000 or so people die every year from normal influenza in the US alone. If that ain’t a crisis, why is this? More than 300,000 worldwide per annum. Perspective, people!

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Amy Breen

    I agree, MPot.

    But it’s pretty funny someone made a twitter for the Walkin’ Dude. Makes me want to pick up the book again.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    Oh, I’m with ya. Totally overblown. Which kind of makes it perfect for Twitter, don’t ya think?

    Anyway, I’ve been pondering it, and rather than blame The Great Media Conspiracy for whipping people into a swine flu panic, I think it’s probably reaching this hysterical timbre because we’ve all been keyed up for years waiting for the coming bird flu pandemic.

  • http://pennywise-books.blogspot.com/ T. Keith Edmunds

    I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. I think it’s just the usual media feeding frenzy. I was never worried about SARS, the avian flu or the current piggy flu.

    On the other hand, I live in abject terror of the eventual Kangaroo Flu….

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    Even Jon Stewart was making cracks about his plans to make killer money by cornering the market on Raccoon Flu antidote.

    In reality, however, almost all flus come about because of the commingling of flu genetic material between chickens, pigs and humans. One does kind of run out of names that way.

  • MPot

    Oh my God. Kangaroo flu gives me mental diptheria.

    (chickymanhog flu?)