My brother-in-law, recently an embedded correspondent for Time magazine in Iraq, currently employed at a conservative Washington think-tank, was just diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. This disorder of the peripheral nervous system causes neuropathy and sometimes paralysis. It sounds horrific, but luckily most sufferers recover fully or almost fully.

Brother-in-law is a military history buff, and his disdain for all things French is well-known. Husband called his brother to check on his condition and, after ascertaining that he was on the mend, twitted him for contracting a disease named after two Frenchmen.

Brother-in-law, without missing a beat, shot back, “Figures it’s something that would make you weak.”