This allergy season nothing to sneeze at

Achoo! Achoo!

Sorry, but allergy sneezes almost never arrive alone.

Runny noses. Watery eyes. Scratchy throats. Wheezing and sneezing and then sneezing some more. The experts won't quite say this is the worst spring ever for airborne allergies on Long Island, even if we're all convinced. But they'll admit it's a prickly season, and there is some genuine science to back that up.

Achoo! God bless you!

A wet, snowy winter was followed by a warm, dry spring. That inundated the growing tree roots, then sent nothing along to wash the pollen away.

What else but allergies could give flowers a bad name? And what exactly is the point of all those allergy reports from TV weathercasters? A high pollen count isn't like predicting snow or rain. You can't actually dress for it, and staying inside won't keep you safe.

Only meds can help. Feed a cold, starve a fever -- and drown an allergy in drugs!

Sadly, we can't all move to Arizona every spring. Puffs with aloe vera can only do so much. For the next couple of weeks at least, we may just have to console ourselves with the knowledge that some people have it even worse than we do. They're in places like Knoxville and Charlotte and Jackson, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

As long as we are suffering like this, isn't it nice to notice someone is suffering even more than we are? Yes, allergies do make us cranky. You might have noticed that.

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: Those beach bodies are the work of at least three killers, not one? Should that make us feel safer -- or less safe? . . . Anyone mourning the demolition of West Hempstead's poorly named Courtesy Motel? Didn't think so . . . $3.7 billion -- with a B -- in Long Island school debt? Isn't it nice students are learning mathematical concepts like "compounding interest" and "up to our eyebrows" . . . Is this Steven Spucces' way of welcoming new folks to town? "AvalonBay and high-density housing is a cancer," the Greater Huntington Civic Group leader (and future Welcome Wagon greeter?) said Thursday. "This cancer will move through our town and grow." . . . Can this marriage be saved: Supervisor Sean Walter and Riverhead Republicans?

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