Not to be outdone by Campylobacter, Norovirus (I think) made an appearance at our house a couple of weeks ago.  It started with Jack, who yacked for a couple of days, spread to Dani and me, and then my dad (who was visiting) had the unfortunate pleasure of spending a couple of days on the toilet.  Following the bout of extra-loose poop, he was pretty weak and dehydrated so I took him golfing in the 60F early March North Carolina weather and I beat him for the first time ever.

It still counts.

At the end of the week Dad got on a plane and flew back to Canada with me joking all the way to the airport about how messy a noro-laden plane ride could be.

Although I’d describe my poop and barf-related imagination as pretty good, I couldn’t have dreamt up the scenario that unfolded on a plane leaving Boston bound for Los Angeles in October 2008 (as reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases via CIDRAP).

Members of [the] tour group experienced diarrhea and vomiting throughout an airplane flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, resulting in an emergency diversion 3 h after takeoff.

The problematic flight departed Boston on Oct 8, 2008, heading for Los Angeles and carrying among its passengers 35 members of a leaf-peeping tour group. (Four more members of the group had planned other routes home, while two had been hospitalized in the previous 2 days.)

Multiple illnesses, I can imagine; Lard-Ass Hogan style barfing, sure. A passenger with “multiple episodes of diarrhea, with at least 1 occurring in the aisle of the first-class section. The soiled aisle was not cleaned until after completion of the flight." No.

I’m just glad I didn’t get a call from my dad saying that he had an episode of diarrhea in the first class aisle. That would have been an awkward conversation.