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Tuesday, August 29, 2017

The Writer's Life 8/29 - Genius

From Yahoo's Odd News, in my own words: Two geniuses dressed as nuns attempted to rob a bank in Pennsylvania. They walked in, one brandishing a revolver, demanded money, but left without taking any. Maybe they experienced an epiphany that changed their minds.

Here are ten common health practices that are actually harmful, from an article at listverse.com, edited by yours truly: Hand sanitizer creates wrinkles on hands, as it dries out skin. It also contains chemicals (aside from  alcohol) that may be harmful if used frequently. Most importantly, the use of it is creating more resistant bacteria and viruses, super-bugs... Much like hand sanitizer, the frequent use of antibiotics is helping to create resistant bacteria. Also, birth control pills are rendered useless while taking certain antibiotics... Bottled water companies do not want anyone to know that minerals humans need to be healthy are filtered out of their product... A significant number of the elderly are addicted to painkillers prescribed by doctors. Prolonged use of narcotics may change brain chemistry. The changes may be irreversible and possibly cause the onset of dementia... Benadryl, an over-the-counter medicine, is used by millions of allergy sufferers. Recent studies have found that prolonged use can lead to a significantly higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s... The main place that viruses and colds end up are in health-care facilities. Why? Because that's where sick people go to get better. Go only when it's absolutely necessary... Chicken and fish are recommended as the best ways to acquire the protein one would get from red meat, yet some types of fish contain mercury, which can cause serious issues when ingested... Margarine was meant to be a healthy, fat-free alternative to butter. Recent studies have found it to be harmful, as it contains trans fats... Many believe that a gluten-free diet is healthy. It may be anything but. Just because a cookie contains no gluten does not mean it is harmless. It contains sugar and butter, empty calories... Heavy exercise in a swimming pool is not recommended, as it may cause strain on the heart, and body temperature is not maintained well... You've been warned.

I'm so concerned about Alzheimer's and dementia that I search for clues that I might be heading for it. Lately, I'd been using the eff word a lot, as well as other choice phrases, inwardly and outwardly. A few days ago I decided to stop doing it just to show myself that it isn't out of my control. So far I've done well, clipping in half those few words that do escape me. Anyway, there was encouraging news on this front in the Weird But True column in today's NY Post. Researchers at Rochester U. in upstate NY asked 1000 people about 400 daily habits such as singing in the shower and swearing, and found that potty mouths tend to have a higher IQ. Smarty-pants folks are also more likely to walk around the house naked. Given those three criteria - I'm a fu... (oops) genius!

It seems like the disaster relief folks in Texas learned a lot from the mistakes post-Katrina.

My thanks to the woman who purchased two books in Russian and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and to the gentleman who bought The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, a Sherlock Holmes mystery from the author of  The Alienist, a novel for which Random House paid Carr an advance of $60,000. Paperback rights were sold at auction to Bantam for $1,001,000. The book made Publishers Weekly's list of best-sellers in April 1994, and during that summer reached number four on The New York Times Best Seller list.



Vic's Sixth novel: http://tinyurl.com/zpuhucj 
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc

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