All My Children

At first, my wife refused point-blank, but the children were so persistent, she finally agreed on a compromise. “OK,” she said, “I’m not promising anything, but we’ll just pop into the local pet shop and have a look.”

Silly girl.

When I got home that evening I was greeted by two ecstatic daughters, a hamster called Hamlet, a blue and white budgie called Timmy — and a look from my wife that warned me to keep quiet and say nothing. Continue Reading »

In adolescence in both sexes the skin texture coarsens and the pores (hair follicles) enlarge, more so in boys. Adolescent skin becomes susceptible to acne—more in one individual, less in another. In acne the wax from the sebaceous (wax) glands, which are connected to the hair follicles (to keep the skin and hair oiled), collects in the follicles and hardens there. The top of each plug of wax, mixed with dirt, becomes a ‘blackhead’, which can be squeezed out with the fingernails, with some difficulty and pain. When the pores become plugged, it is easy for ordinary pus germs, which are usually on the skin anyway, to work down and cause infections under the plugs. These first show as red pimples, which later get white tops on them (`whiteheads’) as the white blood cells collect to try to destroy the germs. Continue Reading »