No, I’m not trying to be shocking. I just caught a little news story last week noting that a monkey in a Denver zoo died of bubonic plague.

Bubonic plague. Would that be the black death? Hmm. Not sure. Jury is out on that one. Jury is in, though, on “bleeding into the skin and other organs, which creates black patches on the skin.”

What is the appropriate response here?

1. Holy shit! or
2. figures.

It turns out not to be as rare as I had imagined (or hoped).

How to prepare? I don’t know. Don’t eat southwestern squirrels, don’t pet mice, don’t get fleas, and don’t play in infectious disease labs. That’s what I come up with so far.