Posted: December 22nd, 2008 - 9:46pm by Doug Powell

I’ve now concluded that people don’t invite me to dinner, not because I’m food safety man, not because I’m a jerk, but because I don’t like the band Journey.

Every time I write about the badness that is Journey, people insist on telling me how Journey power ballads impacted their lives in the early 1980s.

I’m also careful when people dine with me and Amy and Sorenne, cause food safety man making others barf would be, uh, awkward.

That’s probably how the owners of an unnamed southern Illinois restaurant feel after the head of the Lawrence County Health Department said she was among 42 people sickened during a buffet gathering of 72 people Dec. 15.

Phyllis Wells says the cause of the outbreak hasn't been pinpointed, but she suspects that the culprit was a norovirus that can cause stomach distress. … For now, Wells says the common denominator appears to be ham served in the salad bar.