No Tats or Brits, please!

So I can firmly say that Ben started it.
He gets in to work, and the first thing he does is IM me. The conversation below ensues. There was more too it, of course, including such things as what you had to say you hadn't done lately in order to be worthy of giving blood. (Looks like I am still out of the running with my tattoos. Meh.)
At one point he mentions that it asked if he'd been in the UK. We made jokes about the rage virus. None of us can fathom a real answer to it. We get on with our day.
The thought of why the UK should be singled out for hatred by the Red Cross stuck with me, however. I pondered on it quite a bit. I hadn't heard anything in the news lately that would be obvious.
Briefly it tickled my fancy to contact the UK helpdesk and ask them exactly what they were all infected with over there. But then other things happened and I returned to the task of sorting through the company's issues.
Then all of a sudden from nowhere one of the people from the UK helpdesk called up and asked me to go over a few issues for him. It seemed a sign from heaven that I should, in fact, ask them ignorant questions to satisfy my personal curiousity.
So I did.
"Hey Will, according to a friend of mine who donated blood this morning, if he'd been to the UK recently he couldn't donate. I thought you guys had the rage virus under control."
(28 Days Later reference.)
I don't think Will has seen 28 Days Later, because he didn't really respond to that.
It was eventually determined, after I was informed by them that they think everyone in the US is "completely nutter" that the American Red Cross is afraid of Mad Cow Disease, and that is why.
Thus enriched, I shared that with my UK coworkers who were just as curious as I, and grumbled about being held for that old issue STILL.
Rarely does learning join with sarcasm and fun in such a nice little package.