Crosspost: DON'T TELL MAMAN! in QUOTIDIEN

There are TWO reasons for 'catching cold', according to Maman. The first is determined by whether or not you went to bed wearing undies. If not, you were bound to 'catch your death'. It was such a common belief, in our parts, that it wasn't uncommon for a nurse to ask her lung-hacking, fever-burning patient, with a smile and an all-knowing tone, if they'd been to bed sans skivvies.

The second was the frequency of INS and OUTS. Nurse friends - this has nothing to do with consumption - and everything to do with how frequently you go from warm to cold and cold to warm in a single day.

Today, my body feels warm, but my nose is cold. My head feels full. My muscles feel like they're still in bed under the blankets (where they should be). And yes, I slept without underwear, and in our 1000 miles of driving (2 days) and 'visitin'' I have, indeed, gone from warm to cold, cold to warm about 3.2 million times.

So if what I am currently feeling becomes the precursor to my death or near-death experience, and my mother asks - I was fully clothed and I never left the car.