Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: cetmst
Date: 31 May 01 - 07:06 AM

Is chocolate poisonous to dogs or is it a tale spread by chocoholics to prevent diverting the stuff ?

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 31 May 01 - 07:44 AM

Belly buttons exist for storing salt for eating CELERY in bed...

Inquiry's death may have been totally irrelevant to any poinsettias (and, no, there were no holly or mistletoe berries around, either), but Curmudgeon won't let one in the house. And Stephanie Piro's cat did get very sick from eating poinsettias -- she has the vet bills to prove it.

The best book on New York was "Where to Go in New York: A Guide to Public Comfort Stations" -- but it didn't say a thing about alligators. Presumably they were already in the sewer and didn't need comfort stations;-).

Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Lyndi-loo
Date: 31 May 01 - 08:10 AM

Yes dogs do get sick on chocolate. And chewing gum does not stick to your tonsils if you swallow it. But there is definitely a Loch Ness monster

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 May 01 - 10:41 AM

Here's something I learned a few years ago: All those top-40 radio stations that allegedly play "requests" are fake (sort of). They make up their playlists first, and then find "requests" that match them. Since they never have any shortage of requests for the top 20 or so songs, this works for them. If your "request" doesn't correspond to what they would have played anyway, it never gets on the air.

I do think my local public radio station genuinely plays requests, however. Or am I just being naïve?

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 May 01 - 11:09 AM

My dogs are chocoholics. They get the lower part of the chocolate ice cream cone I eat every day. I am not not not a choco-

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: MMario
Date: 31 May 01 - 11:21 AM

well - euphorbia's have some compound (I don't remember what) in them that people exhibit a wide range of reactions to - from the "yeuck" tastes bad feeling I got tasting it in botony class - to the full fledged anaphylatic shock type reaction one of my best friends got from touching the sap with her tongue...cats may well have the same type range of reactions to Pointsettia's

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 May 01 - 11:48 AM

"A long steel rail on a shore so fine

Embarrassing but true- that's how I sang it until I was well into grown. I can only think that's the line my parents must have sung. ??

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: paddymac
Date: 31 May 01 - 12:09 PM

Yes, there is a broad spectrum of responses among persons allergic to something. I have a friend who is allergic to virtually anything from the sea - fin fish, shell fish, "sea salt", anything with anchovie paste in it, etc. I have known others who seemed to have far more specific allergies to "sea things". I even knew a lad who had developed an allergic response to alchohol. Now that would be a serious malady. Generally, allergies of many different sorts play a far greater - and often undiagnosed - role in the maladies of man than is generally recognized.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Matt_R
Date: 31 May 01 - 12:15 PM

BILLY THE BUS!!! Long time no see mate!! Where you been? We missed ya?

--Matt (formerly Mbo)

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 31 May 01 - 02:05 PM

Jeezo man, have I had some myths busted wide open! Here's another one. Think again if you think Chief Seattle said all those wise, witty things about the environment. Seems as most of 'em came from soneone's very alive mind in Texas.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 May 01 - 02:15 PM

That there is a God.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 31 May 01 - 02:20 PM

You can drink water after eating apricots, but you have to wait half an hour. And they aren't alligators, they're crocodiles.

CC

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: GUEST,Tara
Date: 31 May 01 - 02:22 PM

I just read a great article in a vet-tech journal (i.e. a Reliable Resource) which said that neither poinsettias, holly nor misletoe are poisonous enough to hurt anybody or anything. At worst, a serious poinsettia binge could cause a tummy-ache and teach pooch not to munch on houseplants. So, the lady who had a cat get sick on it - that cat must have been especially sensitive, as that is not a typical reaction. Personally, I'm hoping that one of these years my cats will sample the poinsettia and get sick, and thus decide to leave all my herbs alone... Phlox, lily of the valley and digitalis are more deadly than christmas plants, and my pets don't touch those.

Chocolate on the other hand is truely deadly to dogs - the chemical is called theobromide, and it doesn't take much. Chocolate-hull mulch will kill, too.

Now, never having had a counter-surfing dog before my current fuzzy-butted moocher, Cooper, I'm beginning to suspect that any plant or food eaten by a pet has a potential to be deadly. At least, if Cooper opens the cabinet and rips up another box of cereal, I just might kill him...

...And, I thought that belly buttons were only holding tanks for lint, until it could be safely disposed of?

-Tara

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: MMario
Date: 31 May 01 - 02:33 PM

So all the chocolate munching dogs I know are unusually non-sensative?

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 May 01 - 02:36 PM

Here's another disillusionment: Bug zappers do more harm than good, because they attract more mosquitoes than they kill.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Bill D
Date: 31 May 01 - 03:09 PM

...and though no one has mentioned it, Black Walnut chips are to horses,(and to some people and plants) as chocolate is to dogs....http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html

but the Smithsonian Institution does NOT have 'any' *grin* parts of John Dillinger in alcohol....

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 31 May 01 - 03:30 PM

Bell's Whiskey? I thought it was Bell's Palsy..."a suddenly occurring unilateral facial paralysis of unknown etiology" usually following the statement "Step out of the vehicle, Sir. Damn!

And I thought that bald heads resulted from too many U turns on the mattress, not rotating it.

And there's a guy named Bruce who lives in our complex, and has his very own Good Tooth Fairy that drives a Buick, and leaves something under his pillow every night.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Kernow John
Date: 31 May 01 - 03:48 PM

It isn't the marbles that you ate, but the marble statuette. Now what song was that in ?
KJ

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 31 May 01 - 03:48 PM

Chief Seattle did say some words when he was forced to sign a treaty signing away his people's land, and nobody knows how accurate the remembered ones written down by ? some journalist way after the fact; probably as accurate as the Parables; but if you read the words as an angry "You can't own the land. It's a typical stupid white man thing to think you can own the land." speech, they make a whole lot more sense.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 May 01 - 04:35 PM

Art Thieme - Get out. I was just talking to God, and She's willing to admit to your existence... :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 31 May 01 - 04:41 PM

GUEST,Tara:

I think if you look it up you'll find that that chemical you refer to is theobromine, not "theobromide".

Theobromine is the "caffeine-equivalent" found in tea, although there is some caffeine also present.

The first three letters are "tea" in French. No refererence to the Diety.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 31 May 01 - 05:08 PM

John--

The marble statuettes were standing stately in the hall in the tune "Crystal Chandeliers."

Actually, Thea Bromide was a Belgian "actress" shot for espionage during the Franco-Prussian War, though I have always wondered how Franco fought the Prussians given that France is in between.

One of the above paragraphs is true.

CC

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From:
Date: 31 May 01 - 05:41 PM

In November, George W. Bush was the winner of the presidental election.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 May 01 - 06:26 PM

Sorry, Dave O., but theobromine comes from the Greek and means "food of the gods" -- an apt description of chocolate, in my book. You may be getting confused with the methylxanthine that's found in tea, theophylline (which is also an asthma medicine, not as widely used now as it was when I was in residency). That word means "leaf of the gods". For completeness, the third common food-borne methylxanthine is caffeine, from the phrase, "God, I need some coffee!"

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 01 - 06:49 PM

....eating the crusts of your bread/toast makes your hair curly.....

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 31 May 01 - 09:54 PM

My grandmother assured me (what better authority?) that "Little boys who play with matches wet the bed!"

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 May 01 - 10:00 PM

Well, at least they can put out the fire!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Les from Hull
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 08:19 AM

No it's picking dandelions that makes you wet the bed, I'm sure of it. (Actually the French do call them pis-en-lit).

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: GUEST,Brian
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 09:04 AM

It doesn't make you short sighted. Now where did I put them glasses? Or cause short term memory .........um.......er..... What was I going to say? By the way PeterT, why don't you want a mansion with a crossdresser in every room?

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:38 AM

Actually Brian, I was considering other variations:
"with a teatray in every room"
"with a DJ in every room"
"with a bier in every room," and so on.....
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Les from Hull
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:43 AM

Actually, a tear in every room would be hardly noticable. I mean, I spill more tea than that. Unless of course, it is really a tear (other pronounciation, work with me on this one) in every room. That could indicated major subsidence.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 12:05 PM

And of course, a tear can also be a rampage. And here I was thinking of a lonely house echoing with emptiness...

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: MichaelM
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 02:53 PM

I went to Hoaxbusters (thanks Morticia) and found this hilarious one. If you're having a miserable rainy day like Toronto's go to http://sites.netscape.net/spzumalt2/camera1.html

Sorry about the non-blue non-clicky thing.

Michael

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: MichaelM
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 03:02 PM

went to Hoaxbusters (thanks Morticia) and found this hilarious one. If you're having a miserable rainy day like Toronto's go to Click here

Let's see if that works.

If so...thank you permathread.

Michael

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 03:17 PM

Just told my dogs (both senior citizens) that they can't have any more chocolate. They are packing up to leave. Poisonous plants listed in my horticultural guide include Anthurium, cyclamen, Dieffenbachia (iritates throat if you eat it), leaves of English ivy, Euphorbias including Poinsettia and crown of thorns, Hydrangea, Lantana, Mistletoe, Oleander, monkshood (Aconitum), castor bean, foxglove (Digitalis), sweetpea and buffalo been seeds, etc. etc. Of course tolerances vary and not all animals are affected. Poinsettia sap doesn't affect my skin but I know one greenhouse worker who has to wear gloves during the annual task of starting thousands of plants for Christmas sale.

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: MichaelM
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 03:34 PM

I drag myself reluctantly from the greased path of thread creep back to the road less traveled. On a science fact program on Canadian television (@Discovery if I remember properly) a scientist was discussing her work in schools debunking the image of science as this monolith of TRUTH. She discussed the ubiquitous science experiment of tasting liquids to identify the taste centres in your mouth. Most textbooks and teachers describe the perception of sweet,sour,salt and bitter as taking place in distinct areas of your mouth i.e. "You will taste sweet at the back of your tongue..." The interviewee said this was a complete fallacy. There was an early mis-translation of a German medical text. The German text stated that they discovered a tendency towards perception of tastes in different areas. The English text turned it into an absolute. In fact there is no difference in the function of the tastebuds from one portion of your mouth to the other. Generations of young students were pressured into perceiving something that wasn't there by teachers and textbooks that were wrong.

P.S. What is the name for the fifth taste dicovered by the Japanese?

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: harpmolly
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 04:12 PM

I don't know about the fifth taste...but I do remember Terry Pratchett's five particles of magic:

"It was here that the thaum, hitherto believed to be the smallest possible particle of magic, was succesfully demonstrated to be made up of resons (Lit.: 'Thing-ies') or reality fragments. Currently research indicates that each reson is itself made up of a combination of at least five 'flavours', known as 'up', 'down', 'sideways', 'sex appeal' and 'peppermint'."

-- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 04:33 PM

A friend of mine who is a very back-to-the-earth kind of guy told me that he once tested Skunk Cabbage and thought he would die. It has crystals in it evidently that are abrasive and totally non-digestible in the human system. It's a great favorite of bears however .

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 04:47 PM

While most humans find it unbearable...

- LH

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 05:17 PM

I have a male friend who is violently allergic to alcohol - one little sip makes his system shut down in stages .. the bigger the sip, the shorter the time.... if ever anyone spikes his drink, he's dead.... He used to drink a lot and developed the allergy quite slowly. Conversely, I have a female friend who was born allergic to alcohol (she didn't find out until she was 17....), spent half her life being paranoid, and quite ill when told 'it's got nothing else in it snigger snigger', and then after about 15 years has seen her symptoms lessen, and now she can drink almost anything except scotch.

LTS

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 06:34 PM

Well I heard that it was birds who would die if you fed them chocolate.

On the allergy front, there are a tremendous number of people who swear they are "allergic" to one thing or another. Some of these are true allergies (one of a few specific kinds of immune response, which cause things like hives, itching, watery eyes, etc.), some are adverse reactions that are not allergies (some people, like Liz's friends, lack an enzyme to metabolize alcohol, which can cause the buildup of a toxic metabolite that can make them sick), and some are so-called "idiosyncratic reactions", which means "We don't know why it happened, but you probably shouldn't eat any more of that stuff." Then there are people who are "allergic" to things like air and water...

If it was discovered in Japan, the fifth taste was probably wasabi.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: wdyat12
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 07:18 PM

Here is a fact that is still a fact. Want to keep those pesky squirrels occupied for hours while the birds get their dinner at the feeder? Just glob peanut better on a slice of bread and watch them.

wdyat12

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: wdyat12
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 07:22 PM

Peanut Butter?

wdyat12

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 07:41 PM

Here's one: A few years ago a lot of people switched from throwing rice at weddings to throwing birdseed, because a story went around that birds would eat the rice and then the rice would swell up in their bellies and kill them. I'll bet that story was hokum, too. Anybody know for sure?

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:18 PM

Somewhere in the various shelves and drawers of books in this house we have a Chinese cookbook called, as I recall, Eight Immortal Flavors. It seems that in Chinese classical "gourmet" cooking it is considered de rigeur to include in the menu of a planned meal every one of the eight flavors, viz.:

1. Sweet
2. Sour
3. Bitter
4. Hot
5. Salty
........and.......

Who can name the other three? I'll give a little time for people to respond, and I'll post the other three tomorrow sometime. Hint: Two of them you'll probably recognize, though you might not have thought of them as flavors. The third, though a common word, you STILL will have a problem thinking what it might mean as a flavor, until I give examples.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: marty D
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 10:39 PM

For about five years I thought that Sigmund Freud was really on to something. For the next five, it was Fritz Perls. Now I know that NOBODY has a clue, and that's a fact.

marty

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: hesperis
Date: 02 Jun 01 - 12:14 AM

From http://thestar.com.my/kuali/recipes/05jzcook.html

The number five has always been central in Chinese food culture. The earliest book on medicine, Neijing (Internal Channels), written over 2,000 years ago said that the body needed "five flavours'' to live: five grains for nourishment, five fruits for support, five animals for benefit, and five vegetables for energy.

This idea is perpetuated in the traditional flavours deemed fundamental to Chinese cooking; sweet, sour, bitter, hot and salty. That was when flavouring agents were natural products such as honey, fruit jam, nuts, herbs, chillies, peppers and salt.

Later, processed flavouring such as sugar, vinegar and jiang (soy) began to be used, and the Chinese created two additional flavours.

One is xiang which translates to "fragrant'' or "aromatic,'' a taste associated with wine, garlic, spring onion, sesame seeds, Szechuan pepper and other such spices.

The other taste is xian which means "delicious'' or "savoury,'' a flavour produced by good chicken or meat stock, oyster sauce, mushroom sauce, shrimp sauce and monosodium glutamate (MSG).

But, of course, that is only 7 flavours, not eight...

Other sources said "Bitter Sweet Hot, spicy, pungent Salty Acid, sour as in vinegar"

and

"hot, sour, sweet, salty, bitter and fragrant"

I also found one source that said "bland" was the last flavour.

Very interesting! (I'm getting hungry now!!!)

~*sirepseh*~

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Jun 01 - 10:22 AM

The other three are, per Eight Immortal Flavors,:

6. Bland, as you found.
7. Fragrant, again as you found. And
8. Golden!

"What???" (I hear you saying.) "What's "golden" mean as a flavor?"

"Golden" is that taste that you get in kumquats or in orange rind, the sort of sharp or prickly (my words) or penetrating flavor.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: GUEST,hilary
Date: 02 Jun 01 - 05:10 PM

When I as little, I thought the carol was : Good King Wenslas LAST looked out...

I was brought up in north Staffordshire where AMEN is pronounced OUR - MEN. I couldn't understand why hymns should end with our-men.

Hilary

Subject: RE: Darn!Another Absolute Certain Fact Wrong
From: GUEST,Johnny Angel
Date: 02 Jun 01 - 06:29 PM

Anytime you're curious about possible myths, urban legends, and crazy stories you hear or receive by e-mail, you should check out Snopes and The Straight Dope.

www.snopes.com www.straightdope.com

Snopes is a clearing house for urban legends, and they've got an awful lot of them archived, as researched by folklorists Barbara and David Mikkelson.

The Straight Dope is a column by Cecil Adams, in which the record is set straight on a number of perplexing issues. They also have an active message board, where if anyone has any questions about obscure song lyrics, I send them right to Mudcat.