4 ms·
What's the story on the "toxic lady"? (1996)
- tetris11 3y agoCecil Adams is an internet treasure. Before Reddit, his site was the main GOTO for interesting in depth answers to inane questions. One of my favourites is the cause of the "piss shiver" (the shiver you sometimes get when peeing): https://www.straightdope.com/21342202/what-causes-piss-shiver https://www.straightdope.com/21342202/what-causes-piss-shive...
- adolph 3y agoMy reaction to “internet treasure” was that I was reading SD in the Austin Chronicle before there was an Internet as we know it. I checked my recollection and found: Cecil Adams is the pseudonymous author of The Straight Dope, a popular question and answer column published in The Chicago Reader from 2 February 1973 to 2018. The true identity of Adams, whether a single individual or a group of authors, has remained secret. The Chicago Reader's 1986 trademark filing for the name "Cecil Adams" states that "Cecil Adams does not identify any particular individual but was devised as a fanciful name." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Adams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Adams
- coding123 3y agoI'm going with the meth lab theory. Father in law (passed away recently) had a doctor "friend" that sold product. They had stories of routinely breaking into university labs to cook. Can't imagine in those years other people didn't do the same at hospitals.
- buildsjets 3y agoA nurse in Oregon was stealing Fentanyl IV drips, replacing them with tap water. Killed ten people. https://www.columbian.com/news/2024/jan/03/up-to-10-people-died-after-oregon-nurse-swapped-fentanyl-in-ivs-with-tap-water-reports-say/ https://www.columbian.com/news/2024/jan/03/up-to-10-people-d...
- laszlojamf 3y agoHuh. My first question is whether it was the tap water that killed them? Fentanyl is pain medication right. You'd think people would notice something was up before they _die_... EDIT: nvm, says infections.
- EdwardDiego 3y agoYeah, that's the problem with tap water in particular, it's not sterile unless treated. Also, in an IV (or an enema) you're running the risk of hyponaetremia, hence why 0.9% saline solution is the default hydration IV fluid unless you have a condition (usually kidney related) that requires a lower concentration.
- odyssey7 3y agoMore casualties of the war on drugs. Anyone who takes a schedule ii medication has the potential for botched care due to some diversion scheme.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- riwsky 3y agoCan’t get over the sentence “Finally some folks with IQs in the triple digits got into the act”. I think the author’s point was “finally some [geniuses]”, but average IQ is 100 by definition. It’s even funnier though if their point indeed is “finally some [people of not-worse-than-average IQ]”.
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoYeah, I think he was going for "Finally some people who weren't completely clueless" (i.e. willing to claim that hepatitis, pancreatitis, and bone rot could be caused by nausea/hysteria).
- spenczar5 3y agoThis is classic Cecil Adams snark. Having read a bunch of his pieces, I am totally certain he meant “finally, some people who weren’t idiots.”
- andrewflnr 3y agoAs someone who has read none of his pieces (that I remember?), that was my read as well.
- avgcorrection 3y agoWhat’s the opposite of the “room-temperature” insult? Maybe “Death Valley temperature” would be at least one standard deviation above average.
- BobaFloutist 3y agoDeath Valley would be a hilariously poor metaphor, since it's known for both very high and very low temperatures.
- avgcorrection 3y agoYeah well no one talks about Death Valley as in “woah the diurnal variation” though.
- noworld 3y agoEntire podcast episode on this here: https://sqpn.com/2021/05/the-medical-mystery-of-the-toxic-woman-gloria-ramirez-toxic-lady/ https://sqpn.com/2021/05/the-medical-mystery-of-the-toxic-wo...
- solardev 3y agoAside from the Straight Dope column itself, their forum is also typically pretty good: https://boards.straightdope.com/ https://boards.straightdope.com/ It's the only place aside from HN where I've found reasonably interesting, intelligent, and civil discussion. There are different subforums, ranging from factual questions (which tend to have WAY higher quality discussions than SEO spam sites), great debates, entertainment stuff, etc.
- Supermancho 3y agoDMSO is a common ingredient in pain medication from Mexico. I have seen it in salves, among other things. The DMSO4 theory is likely correct. You can also get DMSO from various sources in the US. Usually from "Health Food" or "Supplement" stores. You can just buy it off Amazon now. It's pretty good (water diluted) for relief of nerve damage from a burn or peripheral neuropathy. caveat: I'm not a doctor, but I've both used it and know others who have.
- 082349872349872 3y agoI prefer my skin impermeable, but there are worse things to self-prescribe.
- rendall 3y agoWhat do you mean? It makes skin permeable?
- tbalsam 3y agoDMSO is terrifying, dude, it makes skin so permeable as I understand that supposedly even live bacteria outside of the skin can be transferred inside the skin. It's something I'm shocked seeing people casually use, similar to piperine. Like, with piperine, you're maximizing "absorption" by directly blocking/inhibiting the p glycoprotein pumps that pump toxic substances back into your intestine, etc. Wtf kind of short sighted thinking is that! Why is that remotely considered reasonable long term. It makes things more "absorbed" across the board. Neither is a good tool to play with, usually there is a decent, much much safer "hard way" for most of these methods in my experience, at least. :3 :)
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoDMSO goes right through skin and will carry other compounds with it. It's used in some drug delivery systems to turn an injected drug into a topical one. I first learned about it from the Shadowrun tabletop RPG. In the game, cyberpunk operatives sometimes mix DMSO with incapacitating or lethal poisons to load into military-grade squirt guns. I'm skeptical about that working IRL, but it's pretty funny.