The Straight Dope 06/23/2006

THE STRAIGHT DOPE 06/23/2006

Dear Cecil:

I enjoy spreading lots of vinegar on my salads and other foods. I really
think this makes my food taste so much better. My wife keeps pestering
me to stop using so much vinegar, contending that the acetic acid will
hurt my digestive system. So for the sake of family harmony: Is
consuming so much vinegar bad for my health? How much is too much? I
have been enjoying vinegar for many years (decades) without any problems
and would like to continue. --Bernard Freedman, Scarsdale, New
York

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Cecil replies:

I'm pretty old-school in culinary matters--while I admit a little
balsamic has its place in salad dressing, my main thought about vinegar
is that it's what you use when you're out of Windex. However, times
being what they are, I knew there was bound to be a vinegar fan club.
Sure enough, I find enthusiasts recommending everything from chugging
cold vinegar first thing in the morning to warm vinegar enemas. By
comparison to some of these people, Bernie, your devotion to vinegar
borders on the prim, and I'm guessing that if sipping the stuff for
20-plus years hasn't burned holes in your gullet it probably won't.
Still, here's what could happen if you ever decide to really go nuts.

The main active ingredient in vinegar is acetic acid, which is formed
when certain bacteria oxidize ethyl alcohol. You can make vinegar from
just about anything with alcohol in it, such as wine, apple cider, or
fermented rice or malt. Acetic acid is a pretty good antiseptic,
cleaner, and solvent that you normally wouldn't think about drinking,
but at low levels your body can tolerate it. The reported 50 percent
lethal oral dose for acetic acid (for those dozing last time this came
up, that means the amount that kills half the party) is about 3,310
milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Scaling that up to a 70-kilo
human . . .

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060623.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

How much do tramps or, as Americans call them, bums make from begging? I
say this because I'm not doing particularly well at school and I want to
find out about my future career prospects. I couldn't seem to find out
much about this career path and so naturally I came to you. --Tom
Churchill

SDSTAFF Gfactor replies:

In the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Man with the Twisted Lip," first
published in the December 1891 issue of The Strand Magazine, Holmes
encounters a man who gives up his career as a journalist to become a
beggar because he can make more money that way. He says: 

I painted my face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made
a good scar and fixed  one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a
small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a  red head of hair,
and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business part of the  
city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a beggar. For seven
hours I plied my trade,  and when I returned home in the evening I
found to my surprise that I had received no less  than 26s. 4d. 

Later he indicates that he averaged more than two pounds a day, or
seven hundred pounds a year. Leslie Klinger, in The New Annotated
Sherlock Holmes (2004), says that's above average but plausible. 

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

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 04/19/1991

Dear Cecil: 

Here is one I have been trying to find the answer to for years. I have
asked flight attendants on airplanes all over the world. No one knows.
No one even hazards a wild guess.  Why doesn't the plastic bag inflate?
Since it doesn't, what is it for? I am speaking, of course, of the
oxygen mask that will drop in case of emergency and that you are
supposed to tie securely around your face before attending to infants or
children. The plastic bag attached to the mask never inflates, and
what's more, they make a point of telling you it won't inflate. This to
me is more perplexing than some of the early undeciphered scripts I
study. --Thomas P., director, Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory,
University of Texas at Austin  

Cecil replies:  

Doc, your prayers have been answered. First an inside secret: the
bag does inflate, but only when you exhale.  Here's the deal. 

Passenger oxygen masks give you a continuous flow of oxygen (as
opposed to oxygen on demand, which only flows when you inhale).
The oxygen obviously can't flow into your lungs while you're exhaling,
so if there weren't some way to store it temporarily it would have to be
vented wastefully. The bag makes this unnecessary. When you start
exhaling, your breath plus the incoming O2 flow into the bag. When a
certain pressure is reached the bag stops filling and the rest of your 
exhaled breath, which contains more carbon dioxide, is vented through
a port in the mask. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_140.html

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