The ever entertaining AlterNet mentions Cecil Adams directly in regard to bed bugs and mattresses in 7 Rip-offs You Need To Know About, by Lynn Stuart Parramore, on the 6th September.
Are icky little bugs filling up your bed? Oprah did a show on it. The Wall Street Journal warns that "the average mattress will double its weight in 10 years as a result of being filled with dead dust mites and their detritus.”
Eeek!
Cecil Adams over at Straight Dope looked up the claims, and found that scientists don’t buy it: “It’s nonsense,” said mite authority Larry Arlian, professor of biological sciences, microbiology, and immunology at Wright State University. “I don’t know where that originated. They’re not that prolific.”
Also, oddly: All told, there’s been an 812 percent increase in the price of college textbooks since 1978.