At one point this essay (the one on the up and down of it) began with a reference to a T.V. commercial and the voice over it contained from a woman claiming she was not going to let genital herpes get her down. Probably the convenience taking a pill once a week, not every day (the upgrade this commercial ballyhoos) would not reduce you to deliria of horse riding, wave diving, and hand holding it did the woman on the screen, if only because to make too much of a thing is the nature of advertisement: raise the high, reduce the lows, take your pill and think about “down there” a bit less often so you can get back to getting down, even dirty, with the generic model dude on the horse next to you. In the world of advertising, to get on top of one thing means you are top of it all, smiling like an idiot. Still, cysts on your genitals are a downer, no?