Now that the fall of every year has been officially designated as flu season, naturally, everybody gets the flu.

It recently dawned on me that nobody ever seems to get a common cold anymore. It’s been years since I’ve heard someone say, “I’ve got a cold.” Instead, all it takes is one sneeze and it’s always, “I’ve got the flu.” Or, “The flu bug got me.”

Well, at least that does sound a whole lot more serious than a mere cold, and, therefore, a lot more deserving of sympathy.

It used to be that when a person had a cold, there was only one good thing about it: It was fairly predictable. If one heavily medicated the cold, it would generally be gone in only a week. However, if one failed to medicate it, it would drag on for a whole seven days.

All of which got me to wondering – has the common cold finally been conquered, and nobody bothered to tell me? Or have we become a nation of hypochondriacs? If so, that would be a real shame.

Now, excuse me, I’ve got to blow my nose. This darned flu is killing me.

Roland Fleming, Auburn