DECK the halls...the Christmas lurgy is upon us.

While other parts of the county may be jolly and gearing up for the Christmas festivities, Argus Towers resembles a TB ward as dozens of us are struck down with the latest viral nasty to be doing the rounds.

Christmas is a time for giving, and that obviously includes colds - or man flu. Clearly any male's symptoms are so much more serious than ours that they deserve for you all to sit in front of re-runs of Top Gear on Dave while the womenfolk have to battle on with the shopping, present-wrapping, fending off demanding relatives....

No doubt this surfeit of infections is all down to the extra socialising we all do around this time. Office dos, family parties, wrestling with the queue at the post office to send our parcels.

Now you may think that wearing a hat is the answer to fending off getting a chill, but scientists say this is an old wives' tale.

The US Army Field manual for survival recommends covering your head in cold weather because around 40-45% of body heat is lost through the head.

But a recent study showed there is nothing special about heat loss from the head - any uncovered part of the body would lose heat.

The myth probably started with an old military study in which scientists put individuals in arctic survival suits (but with no hat) and measured their body temperature in extreme conditions.

If the experiment had been done with the participants wearing only swimsuits they would not have lost more than 10% of their body heat through their heads, the researchers said.

Other myths being debunked in the British Medical Journal include poinsettias being toxic (fairly harmless, says the report), a supposed link between sugar and hyperactivity (12 trials could find no link, but I would still hide the selection box until after lunch), and, worst of all, there is no such thing as a hangover cure.

BE careful what you sit down to watch this festive season.

Research by Edinburgh's Heriot Watt University has found that watching romantic comedies can spoil your love life, promoting unrealistic expectations, and finding that fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner.

I don't know about ruining your love life, but I suspect that a constant diet of Hollywood sugar will rot the entire brain.

100 student volunteers were asked to watch the 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity, while a further 100 watched a David Lynch drama.

I do hope it was Blue Velvet.

AND finally...

WE reacted as one when we saw footage of the Iraqi journalist lobbing a shoe at George Bush.

Good duck for a man of his age.

That was Mr Bush's parting Christmas present to the media. Along with informing us all it was a size ten.