Pharmaceutical companies advertise heavily on some of the television shows I watch. The ads almost always have a disclaimer or warning. There’s one in particular that I don’t understand. It’s the one that says don’t take the drug if you are allergic to it. How would you know about the allergy if you don’t take drug? And if you did take it and had an allergic reaction to it, why would you take it again?

“Have something to say; say it; and stop when you are done.” Tryon Edwards.

The history book group just read Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt by Nina Burleigh. I have read biographies of Napoleon, all decades ago, and remember little of his Egyptian foray. I did remember that he brought along scholars, savants, and that the French seized the Rosetta Stone, which ended up with the British. I did not remember, however, how much of a military fiasco the Egyptian invasion was for the French. Napoleon did not get his reputation as a great military leader from Egypt. But what surprised me most in Burleigh’s book was how much the French were decimated by the bubonic plague. I thought that the major effects of the plague were in the middle ages, but it devastated the French in Egypt from 1798 to 1800. (And while the trailer for Ridley Scott’s movie may show Napoleon firing a cannon at the pyramids, that never happened.)

“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” George Eliot.

In the “Is This Supposed to Be Good News?” Deparment: When tiny trash-can-looking containers were found in a local park, the word quickly went out that they had contained fentanyl. The authorities sprang into action and had a lab test them. The police reassured the nervous moms and reported that none of the containers had even traces of fentanyl. The police, apparently trying to be reassuring, said that the containers were just regular crack vials.

“If nobody ever said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth.” Alan Herbert.

I missed the holiday again. November 25 is Evacuation Day, or least it used to be in New York City. The British occupied New York City for most of the Revolutionary War. They finally left on November 25, 1783, with a British flag nailed atop a pole. The first attempts to lower the offending cloth failed because the British had greased the flagpole. The American flag only replaced it after cleats were nailed into the pole. Evacuation Day became a New York City holiday, but it ended in 1916 as World War I made the U.S. especially close allies with the British and officials tried to erase ancient enmities. I think it would be nice to bring back the holiday, not because I care to commemorate again the Revolution or its end. Instead, various restrictive parking regulations get suspended in this city on holidays, and I am always in favor of that.

A wise person said: “It is easier to look wise than to talk wisely.”

I was paying for the cookie (or was it more than one?) at the fancy muffin and cookie place. Two teenaged girls poked their heads in. One asked, “Do you have vegan stuff?” The man sorting out my change replied, “No. Sorry.” The other girl persisted, “No vegan at all?” “No, sorry.” They huffed out. When I left a few moments later, I said, “No reason to be sorry.” With a gorgeous smile, he concluded, “I agree with you.”