Shingles

A close personal acquaintance -- my spouse, I should say -- has something called shingles.

Shingles? That's a terrible word for a disease. I never know which diseases are the ones that are so embarrassing that you don't talk about them. But I would think shingles sounds weird enough that you wouldn't say it. Maybe go to "stay with your aunt" for six months, then come back when you're better. But she's telling everyone she has shingles, like there's no shame in it at all, so I guess there isn't.

I've known quite a few people who've had shingles. It's a disease related to chicken pox. Like actual chickens, it's roosting quietly in your system. Then you get too much stress -- that's what they say -- and it decides to wake up. It wakes up and you have these sores and itching and pain. That's shingles.

I'm guessing it's called shingles because in some classic case that I've never seen, probably the sores are lined up and overlapping like shingles on a house. It's a disease that is with you for a long time too.