Odysseas' story begins 1195 BCE. He had laid siege to the city of Troy with it's high walls. Through a cunning deception, he and his warriors snuck into Troy, secreted inside a great wooden horse, which the Trojans foolishly accepted as a token of armistice. When the Trojans fell asleep, Odysseas and his men leapt forth, slew the guards, and threw open the gates! He took the long way back from Troy, against his better judgement, yadda yadda, a few years passed and here we are. Don't ask how it went for the men who sailed with him. It did not end well, through absolutely no fault of his own. Frankly, it was their fault and if anybody should feel bad, it's them. 

Nowadays, Odysseas works in construction management. His panoply gathers dust. He seems content to build rather than destroy. But for how long?

(Comrade Uncle) A. Joseph Layon, MD is an intensive care physician. Trained at Grossmont College, the University of California, San Diego and UC, Davis, and specializing in internal medicine anesthesiology and critical care, he has functioned as a clinician, educator, investigator, division and department chair, Faculty Senate Chairman, Medical School Financial “fixer”, internationalist and – in what was the most difficult and painful task of all of these – as an (inadvertent) whistleblower in a compromised health system.

Present at the beginning of the three major pandemics of our era – HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2, he currently cares for ill fellow humans with these and other critical illnesses, writes, reads, rows, and remains an activist in the struggle to make our country and world livable, and just, for all.