King, Stephen Easter Egg - The Stand

No one else seems to have noticed this, but the name of the "superflu" in "The Stand" seems to be an Easter Egg for King's own amusement (and mine)

Although I have never read the book, when my mother told me the name of the bug, Captain Trips, I chewed on that name for days. Why would he name it that?

"Captain Trips" was one of Jerry Garcia's nicknames during the 60s.

What does a rock god have to do with thousands of dead people? Well, the world after such a huge epidemic must be so awful that the people who have died are actually LUCKIER than the people left behind to clean up the mess.

The ones who died are obviously "The Grateful Dead."
;-)