Friday Four

1. If you have very young kids, you may hate entering and leaving daylight savings time as much as I do. When the clock springs forward, you lose sleep. Everyone does. When it goes back, the kids wake up at the same time, so you miss out on the "extra sleep."

This year, the timing of our move last Sunday was great: I basically got to skip resetting my clock this time. We woke to Central Standard time Sunday, which was akin to getting an extra hour to get ready to fly -- a huge bonus with kids in tow. And then we flew to Eastern Standard time, which is the same as the Central Daylight Savings Time zone we were used to already.

That said, it still feels late in the evening because the sun is setting "sooner" than it had been.

2. Little Man, in the words of a barber who met him just before a haircut, is a "bruiser." He's on the big end of the growth curve, which is amusing since both of us are short. He also carries himself like he's tough. But he seems to have a very benevolent temperament, and loves to toast, as I have mentioned before. I encourage this sometimes, by saying, "Cheers, buddy!"

I plan to do this long after he has outgrown me, and may even add "little" to it if he ends up being particularly large.

3. Our sitter gave the kids magic wands as going-away gifts on our last day in the Lou, so I taught them to "hex" me by pointing their wands at me. (After they do so, I act wounded and drop to the floor, usually eliciting giggles.)

Little Man, the benevolent necromancer, has taken to saying, "Ahkay?" -- his way of asking if I'm okay -- after doing this.

4. Whether this works in humans remains to be seen, but I am glad there may soon be a new weapon in the anti-MRSA arsenal:

The drug, a deadly combo of an antibody glued to an antibiotic, specifically seeks and destroys Staphylococcus aureus -- even the difficult-to-kill, drug-resistant variety, methicillin-resistant staph (MRSA). In mice infected with MRSA, the dynamic duo fought off the infection better than the standard antibiotic treatment of vancomycin, researchers report in Nature. If the findings hold true in humans, the new superdrug could vastly improve the success rates of MRSA infection treatments, some of which can fail up to 50 percent of the time.

The article goes on to explain the therapeutic approach, as well as why it might not work in humans. (HT: Paul Hsieh)

-- CAV