Sunday Reflection: A "Darkly Compelling" Disease

"As a writer, I have to admit, there is something darkly compelling about Alzheimer's because it attacks the two things most central to a writer's craft - language and memory, which together make up an individual's identity. Alzheimer's makes a new character out of a familiar person." -- Esquire's wonderful columnist Charlie Pierce, whose father and uncles succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. The German doctor who first identified the disease, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, was born on this day in 1864.

June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. You can learn more about the insidious disease here.