The Past Was Way Worse (plus personal indulgence)

Not that long ago, the most common age of death (mode) in many countries was zero. The past was truly terrible. 

"In the bad old days, say two hundred years ago, men lived twice as long, on average, as women (mostly because of the dangers of childbearing and -birth). And everybody in general lived about half as long as they do today." from here

Here makes the point that it wasn't just infant mortality.

More good news re: mosquitos, a point I made in Losing. (tl;dr - fuck mosquitos, the deadliest animal in the world, and fuck everyone who argues against their eradication.) 

Although things are still horrific for many, if we are going to live, the average human is incredibly lucky to live now.

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Speaking of luck, on this date in 1993, Anne and I got our piece of paper (which came back to bite her; see far below):

"[S]he wanted to get with me. Why, I’m not sure. But using all my life’s luck for that was worth it."

p. 166

PS: I've been sick this week such that Anne has had to cancel going in to school to tend to me. She wrote to one of her colleagues: "Of course, I'd rather [come in] but I took that pesky vow."  😉