America, it's time to get ready for the flu

It's the most wonderful time of the year - the time when the flu makes its presence known in the United States.

You may not have given influenza much thought, but that's OK - health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been doing it for you. They say the virus had been lying low through October, but that's changed since early November.

So far, the dominant strain of influenza here is of a sort that usually