Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams, a resident of the East Bay city of Dublin, tells the AP that he has been suffering from Spasmodic Dysphonia, a mysterious disease in which parts of the brain controlling speech shut down or go haywire. According to the AP, one of the most peculiar aspects of SD is that victims are typically unable to have intimate conversations in their normal voice. Yet they can speak under different circumstances, such as immediately after sneezing or laughing, or in an exaggerated falsetto or baritone, or while reciting poetry. He is taking treatments where Botox is applied to the larynx and hopes his most recent bout with the disease was his last one.