Morpheus' little cousins

I have a bugger of a cough. I didn't notice impending signs of infection, that is, the interferon-tinged achiness and fever which often precede garden variety upper respiratory tract viral invasions. It was just a dry cough a couple of days ago then blossomed into a real hack-a-thon, particularly in the evening.

Thank goodness for morphine's relative, hydrocodone, a semisynthetic derivative of codeine, which is perhaps the best thing short of brown heroin for a cough. Well, that contention might be disputed since hydrocodone is not effective as an antitussive for all people, but based on empirical evidence, my μ-opioid receptors must have some modicum of affinity for the stuff. I hoarded a stash of an acetaminophen-hydrocodone tabs which were left over from past dental work. I figured I'd need them for future antitussive purposes. I am grateful for my pharmacologically thrifty foresight.

In other news, Doc Bushwell's Funhouse o' Science is no more. Kilgore's Endorphin Cult was summarily executed by the Free Forums for the crime of "inappropriate material." Who knew that BlackLight Power was so...so profane? However, Kilgore resurrected the Endorphin Cult in yet another incarnation. How's that for mixing theological allusions? I have updated the link in the left column. Enter at your own risk.

In my real funhouse, I have the opportunity to "do science" again, which is quite a pleasure after almost two years as a manager of scientists, a job which entails herding brilliant but prone-to-egotistical-hissy-fit cats. It is said that theatre people are the most temperamental of all employees. Au contraire! Deal with a senior scientist whose colleagues have not acknowledged him or her properly in a seminar (this typically requires ritualized genuflection) or whose name has not appeared in an authors' list. Then get back to me on termperamental theatre types. Anyway... I will still play the cat herder, but the addition of staff allows me to get back into the lab albeit in a piecemeal fashsion. The project involves an enzyme with a very complex reaction mechanism; it is a potential target for cancer. Well, aren't they all? But it is not another freakin' kinase! The target has another major therapeutic indication, but I'd have to kill you if I told you what that was.

Now I'm off to dig up my little tab of hydrocodone and quell the evening hackery, i.e., the cough and my writing!