The Straight Dope 01/07/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 01/07/2005

Dear Cecil:

Various health and yoga websites claim that iceberg lettuce contains
chemicals similar to laudanum, morphine, or other opiates. There are
also reports of people being admitted to hospitals after injecting
themselves with lettuce extracts, and papers about smoking lettuce. I
have found no information about the chemical constitution of lettuce
that mentions morphine or opiates. Are there such things in supermarket
lettuce? --Curious Lettuce Eater, via e-mail

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Cecil replies:

You're thinking: How can iceberg lettuce be a drug? It barely qualifies
as a food. Little do you know. While the stuff from the supermarket
isn't likely to do much, lettuce generally speaking does contain
psychoactive compounds. Enough to get you high? Hard to say. Judging
from available evidence, the stuff might do nothing, give you a buzz, or
kill you. Here's what we know:

1. When cut, the stems of lettuce plants ooze a milky juice whose
appearance, taste, and smell are said to be similar to opium.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050107.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #1 - 07/31/1987

Dear Cecil:

Don't know whether Baltimore ever had a Bijou movie theater. Don't know
if there are too many around the country now. But at one time wasn't
Bijou a very popular name for a movie house? Where did the name come
from? And how is it pronounced? --F.M., Baltimore

Dear F.:  

You say it BEE-zhoo, although depending on the neighborhood you can
also get away with everything from BUY-joo to BEE-joe--when you start
trying to dress up your establishment with a little dimestore French, you
take your chances on pronunciation. 

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_167.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #2 - 01/24/1986

Dear Cecil: 

I've been told that thousands of years ago mankind recognized the
existence of only three colors. For obvious reasons I'm rather skeptical
about this piece of historical wisdom. When were additional colors
recognized? Did someone "discover" them--e.g., William of Orange? Eric
the Red? You just can't find this out in the World Book. --Cary C.,
Santa Monica, California  

Cecil replies:  

In the restaurant of knowledge, Cary, remember this: the World Book is a
snack, the Straight Dope is a meal. But enough of this folderol.
Anthropologists and classicists have been arguing about color terminology
since the nineteenth century, and it's only recently that the situation has
begun to clarify. The opening shot was fired by William Gladstone, the British
politician and Homeric scholar. He pointed out that abstract color
terminology was virtually absent from Homer's work, and claimed that the
Greeks had no sense of color at all, having only the ability to
distinguish light from dark. He believed "... that the organ of color
and its impressions were but partially developed among the Greeks of the
heroic age"--i.e., the Greeks were physiologically incapable of
perceiving color. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_168b.html

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