Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Recommended humpday reading: If the swine flu thing has you remotely paranoid, try reading Katherine Anne Porter’s definitive short story “Pale Horse, Pale Rider.” Based on her own near-death experience during the WWI flu outbreak. I discovered and fell in love with Porter recently during a class that I hated, but it was almost worth taking the class for the discovery alone. Oddly, Porter seems to be one of the forgotten authors of the 20th century. Her other stories, all largely biographical, are also good.