(Melchizedek Communique, MC032910) In "Journal of the Plague Year", Melchizedek Communique had reported upon the bubonic plague which struck London in 1665. (Background: http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc032410.html)

In his worthwhile novel, The Shell Game, author Steve Alten likewise mentions a plague. But this plague, H1N1/Avian Flu, described in 2007 by Alten, is man-made. It was only after Alten had written his book that H1N1 was called "Swine Flu" when an incident in La Gloria, Mexico became sensationalized. (Background: "La Gloria and Mass Media Frenzy", http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc050509.html)

Of course, after tremendous alarm, it turned out that -- "Oops" -- What ever happened to "Swine Flu"?. Wolfgang Wodarg, Head of Health at the Council of Europe, considers that the H1N1 scare was a "campaign of panic", a "false pandemic", "one of the great medicine scandals of the century" and claims that the vaccines, based on cancerous cells, spell the chilling message "there is worse to come". (Background: "What Ever Happened To Swine Flu?", http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc011810.html)

But the real H1N1, described by Alten, is theorized to be part of a planned massive depopulation effort. Alten quotes some alarming "professor talk", such as the following from Ecology professors David and Marcia Pimental: "The nations of the world must develop a plan to reduce global population from nearly 6 billion to about 2 billion." Of course, the learned Pimentals do not mean we should introduce the plague. But in Alten's scenario a deadly man-made plague is the logical conclusion arrived at by some topmost government planners.

And so, to get a sense of things, this editor began to read Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year. We find that a few months before the 1665 London plague, "a blazing Star or Comet appear'd for several Months before the Plague..." And then, coincident to the 1666 Great Fire of London, another comet was seen. Both comets passed directly over London. The 1665 comet of the plague "was of a faint, dull, languid Colour, and its Motion very heavy, solemn and slow." But the 1666 comet of the fire "was bright and sparkling, or as others said, flaming, and its Motion swift and furious..."

But a good chuckle can be found in Defoe's Story of the Piper. During the London plague, what was said to be a blind piper was noticed. As the dead and dying increased, the piper was seen "piping along from Door to Door." When people asked the piper, "How goes it?", he would reply, "The dead cart has not taken me yet, but it promised to call for me next week."

And it just so happened that, the very next week, the piper fell asleep in a doorway (for he was a poor man). And while he was asleep, the people of the house heard the bell of the dead cart and so brought out their dead. They imagined the sleeping piper was one of the dead also, and laid their body beside his. The dead cart came and picked up both the piper and the other. Other bodies were piled in as the cart made its gloomy way to the burial ground.

But when the cart finally stopped, the piper awoke, raised himself up and shouted, "Hey! Where am I?" The man driving the cart was at first greatly affrighted. But when he realized what had happened, he exclaimed, "Lord bless us. There's some Body in the Cart not quite dead!"