to all those kind friends who came rushing to my assistance yesterday: THANK YOU VERY MUCH It is the mumps! How a seventeen-year old on holiday in Israel found the mumps, I cannot fathom. Because that's where he must have contracted it, because of the incubation period. I will keep in mind all the different things you-all told me to look out for - just in case. But it seems like a textbook, classic case of MUMPS. Thanks hiLary bLue