The Straight Dope 04/30/2004

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

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 04/30/2004

Dear Cecil:

Recently a friend of the family had a heart attack. While he was in the
hospital, they gave him nitroglycerin pills to stop the attack and ease
his chest pains! I consider myself as having a rational mind, but the
ingestion of explosives (no matter how small the amount) does not on the
surface seem to be a great way to promote cardiovascular health! In
fact, it would seem that nitro might have caused a few heart attacks
(especially around the Fourth of July). How does nitroglycerin stop
heart attacks? --Steve S., Salt Lake City

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Cecil replies:

People nowadays are such wimps. If you're looking for strong medicine,
how can you do better than a high explosive? The nitroglycerin in the
pills, patches, and sprays that heart patients use for angina (chest
pain) is in fact the same stuff you find in dynamite--the residue the
drug leaves on patients' skin and clothing is often enough to set off
airport bomb-sniffing machines. The medicinal dose is tiny and diluted
with inert material, so it's completely nonexplosive; even so,
nitroglycerin is one medicine I'd hesitate to shake before use.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040430.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

It's a cliche that the Eskimo put their old folks out on the ice to die
when they can no longer contribute. Does this really happen? Do Eskimos
really abandon their elderly? --Nick Keenanpr, Washington, DC

SDSTAFF bibliophage replies:

Do Europeans cause rat-borne plagues by killing cats because cats are
demon spawn? 

Sorry for the iciness, but it bugs me when questions about strange
Eskimo customs are phrased in the present tense, as if nothing could
have changed since the eighteenth century. But yes, in the past some
Eskimos did kill old people under certain conditions. In more recent
times missionaries and national governments have frowned on that sort of
thing. The last reported case was in 1939, but the practice was a rarity
long before that. In any case, the common perception of taking Granny
out to the nearest ice floe and setting her adrift is wrong. I can't
prove it never happened . . .

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

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 03/09/1979

Dear Cecil: 

I don't understand TV scheduling. I would assume that since a greater
number of the Teeming Millions is awake from 9 to 10 PM than from 10 to
11 PM, more of them are ogling the idiot box during the earlier hour.
This means that during the last hour of prime time (10-11 PM in New
York, 9-10 PM in Chicago), many more people are watching in the Central
zone than in the Eastern zone, allowing a far great number of
Buttoneers, Popeil Pocket Fishermen, and tubes of Tickle Deodorant to be
sold in the Midwest than on the East Coast. Accepting this, which any
sensitive and thoughtful individual would, why on earth does West Coast
TV operate under the East Coast schedule?

As an addendum, Cecil, if you are called upon to destroy my assumptions,
please be merciful and don't employ your laserlike wit to grind me into
pulp. --Allan S., Evanston, Illinois

Cecil replies:

Don't snivel, Allan, we just had the floors waxed. The present system of
network scheduling is the result of the four timeless factors that
govern all human endeavors: geography, technology, inertia, and greed.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_362b.html

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