Contact lenses

" Once, as we walked down the street past a hair salon, three ladies ran outside to see us - a stylist wearing plastic gloves, a woman with curlers, clips and strips of aluminum foil in her hair and a woman with a picture phone ready to snap our pup's photo.

They all wanted to know one thing: "What is she?

" I felt obliged to come up with something fancy, since my previous answers just weren't compelling enough.

It all began at Chicago's Animal Care and Control facility, the city pound, where someone dumped a litter of sneezing, worm-infested puppies.

Paws Chicago took Ethel's litter and that's where my wife Robin and I spotted the cute, blue-eyed pup on Paws Chicago's Web site.

We adopted her and named her Ethel.

At the time we didn't know we had a King Daley shepherd.

The shelter called her an Australian shepherd mix because that's what she looked like, at first.

However, as she began to grow, it became clear that she probably wasn't an Aussie mix.

When people asked, "What is she?

" I'd answer, "She's a mutt." But I felt demeaned by patronizing responses like "Oh, how sweet." They'd say, "How wonderful" to adopt, but as they rolled their eyes, their body language communicated another message.

Clearly, they would be more impressed with a bagel, or some other designer breed.

So I created a designer breed of my own.

Since Ethel originally came from the ci...

Fortunately, inhalers and modern medication will let you run your heart out on the soccer field without worry.

Diabetes?

Try insulin.

Bad taste in music?

How does The Bloodhound Gang and techno sound?

There's a fix for almost everything.

But, before the wonders and luxury of modern technology, how did people with these problems survive?

Surely, the world's health problems of 500 years ago were not that much different than today's.

The difference is that in those times, the medical treatment for all the medical conditions mentioned in the previous paragraph would have been to let a leech suck your blood.

As you might imagine, this didn't work as well.

Average life spans were short and most newborns did not make it to adulthood.

If there is any imaginable good to come out of millenniums of poor health care, it's that only the healthy would survive ...

and my tooth wouldn't be hurting right now.

I guess I really have no right to complain, though.

I could've easily been born into a society where I didn't have the option of just going to the dentist if my teeth bothered me.

I could've easily grown up in a place where people were concerned with starvation, not obesity.

I could've even been afflicted with diseases and deformities that even modern medicine cannot properly treat.

Instead, I'm living a life of privilege.

If it turns out that my wisdom teeth do need treatment, I will certainly get it.

If later in life I ...

Founded in 1853, the Company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and employs approximately 13,000 people worldwide.

Its products are available in more than 100 countries.

More information about the Company can be found on the Bausch & Lomb Internet site at www.bausch.com.

Copyright Bausch & Lomb Incorporated.

Contact Bausch & LombNews Media:Michael L.

McDougall, 585-338-5469mmcdougall@bausch.comorInvestor Relations:Daniel L.

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