The Straight Dope 02/18/2005

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

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 02/18/2005

Dear Cecil:

In the movies or on television, when a doctor or a nurse needs to subdue
a raving, hysterical patient, they inject a strong sedative, to which
the patient succumbs mere seconds later. How accurate is this depiction?
Does the drug travel from the arm to the brain that quickly? --Stephen
A., Manhattan

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Cecil replies:

We have two questions here, Stephen--the one you asked, and the even
more interesting one you'd have asked if you'd thought of it, namely
whether there's any factual basis to the unforgettable scene in Quentin
Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, in which a dying drug-overdose
victim instantly revives when two jamokes stab a giant hypodermic of
adrenaline into her heart. Short rap on near-instantaneous sedation:
wacky. On heart shots: wacky, but not completely off the wall.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050218.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

How do they salt peanuts while they are still in the shell? This mystery
has been plaguing me for years and I just have to know. --Ricky Cohen

Dear Straight Dope:

This question puzzled my friend and me for almost the entirety of a
three hour road trip: How are peanuts shelled on a mass production basis
like at Planters? -- Patrick Taylor, Jackson, Mississippi

Dear Straight Dope:

Having not found the answer elsewhere to this poser and willing to let
you do all the research, we ask: How did peanuts, a South American
domesticated crop, make their way to Southeast Asia to become an
integral part of that area's cuisine? --Cyn

SDSTAFF Una replies:

Cecil sent all your questions to me, gang--seems I'm now the Straight
Dope Science Advisory Board member in charge of dealing with nuts. 

The peanut is a South American groundnut with an ancient history. We
can't be certain exactly when it was first used for food, but peanut
shells have been found preserved at archeological sites dating as early
as 2500 BC. I've seen the claim that "peanuts also have been found in
pre-Columbian sites in Zhejiang province in China dating from between
2100 and 1811 BC" (reference 6), suggesting an early introduction to the
Old World, but I didn't find enough to corroborate that claim for now.
What we can be fairly sure of is that peanuts were used as food in
Peruvian settlements as early as 700-800 BC (reference 1), due to the
presence of pots with carved peanut shell motifs in burial sites of the
Moche people of Peru.

The earliest European exposure to the peanut most likely occurred when
the Spanish arrived at Hispaniola in 1502, where the Arawak peoples knew
of the food and called it "mani" (reference 2). The first printed
Spanish account, from 1535, says, "They sow and harvest it. It is a very
common crop . . . about the size of a pine nut in the shell. They
consider it a healthy food." It was also encountered by the Portuguese
in Brazil, with records dating from the mid-16th century giving it the
name "mandubi." Seeing its value as a food, both the Spanish and the
Portuguese took it back to Europe with them.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpeanuts.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 04/11/1986

Dear Cecil: 

I heard a weird radio news report a while back about some college
medical researchers who had done a study on Coca-Cola being used as a
contraceptive. Can this be? The researchers claimed that several third
world countries use it and it works. Also, they did a study of the
various Cokes out on the market and found that new Coke was not as
effective as old Coke and Diet Coke was better than both. Is this true?
What college did the research, and how do you go about using Coke as a
contraceptive? --Illinois Smith, Chicago

Cecil replies:

A lot of research on contraceptive techniques is done at colleges, Smitty. 
Some of it is even done in the labs.  

The Coke bulletin was issued by three researchers at the distinguished Harvard
Medical School, and published last November in the equally distinguished New
England Journal of Medicine, surrounded by articles on such topics as 
"Retinoic Acid Embryopathy" and "Aldosterone- Receptor Deficiency in
Pseudohypoaldosteronism." It consists of a total of four paragraphs plus
one table. From these we may glean such nuggets as the following:
"Postcoital douching with household substances was a popular form of
contraception at the beginning of this century, and Coca-Cola is still
said to be used in developing countries for this purpose." The Fugs, if
I remember correctly, did a song on this subject once. Great group, the
Fugs. Gave new meaning to the expression "seminal influence."  Our
authors go on: 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_218b.html

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