Monday Musings

   Couple of things on the Ratbag radar today. First, actor Michael Douglas (he was in Basic Instinct among others). You may or may not know he's been aggressively  battling throat cancer for the past while. And now, it seems, he's decided to let us all know how he thinks he got it. According to Mike, it's from performing oral sex on women! Yup! Mike goes on to say he believes he picked up a form of human papilloma virus that morphed into his cancer doing it. I bet Catherine Zeta-Jones was thrilled beyond belief to hear that. And while it could be true, the Ratbag bullshit meter is hovering near the red on that statement. Like years of smoking and drinking didn't play a role.
   Moving on (mercifully). There's a new fad growing among calorie counting drinkers who like to binge, but not add to their waistlines. It's called "smoking alcohol", and consists of pouring some of your favorite booze in a container and vaporizing it either with dry ice, or pressurizing it with a bicycle pump, then letting the pressure out, which forms the vapor. Which is then inhaled. I sense several Darwin's in the making with this one. Doctors warn about the risks, not the least of which is pumping raw, vaporized alcohol almost directly into your bloodstream and brain, without the liver processing some of it. The big worry is alcohol poisoning. Normally when you've had way too much to drink, the stomach sends a message to the brain basically telling you to puke up before it's too late. Bypass the stomach, and that built in defense mechanism can't trigger. Plus, who the hell wants to waste 50 bucks on a bottle of 18 year old rye when you can't taste it?
   'Nuff said.