What to cook first: the chicken or the egg?

Eastern European health officials, having determined at last that the bird flu virus is in the henhouse (so to speak), are advising citizens to avoid eating raw eggs and bloody chicken parts.

To which we add a hearty "amen." Unless you are Sylvester Stallone bulking up for Rocky VI, you don't really need raw eggs in the manana. And we've never really cared for uncooked, or even undercooked, poultry. Besides bird flu there are other nasties that can make you quite ill.

Inevitably the bird flu strain H5N1 will come to America. Less inevitable, though possible, is that it will mutate to allow human-to-human transmission. The fewer humans that get the disease, the less likely it mutates.

So keep that meat thermometer handy, and let's be careful out there.