Gnotobiotics

Thank you, Sylvie!

What an amazing coincidence! What astounding synchronicity! What an astonishing fluke!

I am gobsmacked, that you, Sylvie, a mature French woman, a woman of outstanding intellectual capability, a school-teacher, living in France, speaking perfect French, should have chosen this very word for our Competition!

It�s strangely, weirdly, uncanny! It�s frightening almost!

Why do I say this?

Because our story begins with an illiterate German-American boy, 6 years old, a pupil at Primary School, who could barely string 3 English words together in a sentence.

THAT is what is so bizarre!

He was NOTHING AT ALL LIKE YOU!!!

His name, unlike yours, was Sillen. Ottocar Sillen!

He lived with his Aunt, Penelope.

For convenience, (and to avoid jokes about transport), everyone called the boy, Ottoc!

One day, they had fried eggs for dinner. His Aunt told him to wash the dishes, but Ottocar didn�t do so, and left them unwashed. When he returned, some hours later, there was mould growing on the remains of the egg yolk. He showed his Aunt.

Out of curiosity, she poured a few drops of her home-made vinegar on the mouldy, smelly, egg yolk. Within seconds, the mould had disappeared, and the egg was once again, perfectly fresh, and edible.

�By, Ottoc! I think I�ve discovered something here!� she exclaimed.

From that day onward, her nephew referred to her, as �Auntie By Ottoc!�

We move forward 10 years, to her Doctorate of Medicine ceremony, where Penelope Sillen had developed and successfully tested her first �Auntie By Ottoc� drug.

Its name? � Of course!

Penny Sillen!

She founded her �Auntie By Ottoc� Pharmaceutical Company, with the Slogan:

�Gee! NO to Biotics!�

The rest is History!

Les Douglas