Swine Flu Q&A

In February 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, killing a 19-year-old private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a devastating epidemic, President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost of $135 million (some $500 million in today's money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the vaccine. By April, more than 30 people had died of the condition. Facing protests, federal officials abruptly canceled the program on Dec. 16. The epidemic failed to materialize.

Medical historians and epidemiologists say there are many differences between the relatively benign 1976 outbreak and the current strain of swine flu that is spreading across the globe. But they also say the decisions made in the wake of the '76 outbreak - and the public's response to them - provide a cautionary tale for public health officials, who may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease.

This week, a double header: a look a swine flu and some tips from our old friend Henry The Hand on preventing the spread of swine flu.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen (US movie actor, comedian, & director, 1935 - )

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Swine Flu Q&A

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Get Along Without a Pinkie? It’s Tougher Than You Might Think

In the USA, a pinky swear or pinky promise is made when a person wraps one of their pinky fingers around the other person's pinky and makes a promise. Traditionally, it's considered binding, and the idea was originally that the person who breaks the promise must cut off their pinky finger.

Among members of the Japanese yakuza (gangsters), the penalty for various offenses is removal of parts of the little finger (known as yubitsume).

In India, holding up the little finger is a signal that the person has to urinate.

In Turkey and in Colombia, it's tradition to link little fingers when two people are making a bet.

In Russia, when two people are French-kissing, it is customary to often link little fingers together.

Needless to say, your little finger, often called the pinky in American English and pinkie in Scottish English, usually smallest finger of the human hand, is good for things besides wearing a pinky/pinkie ring.

This week, we look at what happens if you break your pinky/pinkie.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day." - John Archibald Wheeler (an eminent American theoretical physicist, 1911 - 2008)

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Get Along Without a Pinkie It’s Tougher Than You Might Think

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To Your Health - Beer

Beer has 11 essential vitamins and minerals...but you knew that.

This week, a look at research (Go Ags!) that says beer is good for you (like I needed research to tell me that).

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness." - Thomas Jefferson (3rd president of US, 1743 - 1826)

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Cry Me A River: The Psychology Of Crying

Behind the human eye lies a complex system of dozens of secretory and excretory glands bearing such names as "crypts of Henle" and "Wolfring's glands." These glands combine to produce basal tears that flow into the nasolacrimal duct, which in turn empties into the nose. Under the right conditions of irritation, emotion, or illness, the glands yield more liquid than the nasolacrimal duct can handle, causing tears to spill out and drain over the eyelids.

Thus crying, a rare human universal that we share with no other creature, for which reason Charles Darwin called it "a special expression of man." This week, a look at the psychology of crying.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities." - Aldous Huxley (English critic & novelist, 1894 - 1963)

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Cry Me A River

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Maraschino Cherries

Maraschino cherries do not grow on trees (yes, I actually knew someone who thought that, but then he also thought trees that dropped their leaves were dead); rather, they are something made, something transformed. They have always been about starting out as one thing and ending up another. Who would have predicted cherries pickled in seawater and marinated in a liqueur would have caught the attention of well-heeled folks throughout Europe and then become all the rage in the United States, largely bobbing around in cocktails like the Manhattan?

A New York Times story from Jan. 2, 1910, captured the nation's maraschino-cherry mania:

"A young woman engaged a room at a fashionable hotel and, after ordering a Manhattan cocktail, immediately sent for another. Soon she was ordering them by the dozen. The management interfered and someone was sent to expostulate with her; also to find out how she had been able to consume so many cocktails. She was found surrounded by the full glasses with the cherry gone."

Unfortunately for her, the less expensive "Shirley Temple" was another twenty years in the making, either invented at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel at Waikīkī in Honolulu, Hawaii, or Chasen's Restaurant in Beverly Hills, California.

Members of the country's growing temperance movement weren't too hot on a hooch-soaked cherry, especially when it started landing atop ice-cream sundaes. Manufacturers were using all sorts of things other than alcohol to make maraschinos, long before Prohibition passed, which is where the FDA steps in.

This week a look at the maraschino cherry.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget." - G. Randolf

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