# Thalidomide "joke" - really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 24, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050 "2011-05-24T19:16:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/41 "2011-05-26T18:56:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > This confession needs a retraction. General Mills makes Total Corn Flakes, and used to make a product called Country Corn Flakes. [They’re made with rice.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuej5igoKCo) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/42 "2011-05-26T20:09:39Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > [They’re made with rice.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuej5igoKCo) They are still corn flakes(with rice added.) When added to the Total Corn Flakes and the bulk and individual packets of Frosted Corn Flakes packaged for military and camp use, I think we can safely say that General Mills made corn flakes. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/43 "2011-05-27T04:11:24Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > Your monitor renders that as an oval? > [😃](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ellipsis) > /pedant Youi are aware of the story about the twso Circles (from Flatland, natch) who fell in love and married. ♂ + ♀ And of course they had a kid, the cutest little circle you ever saw: o But as the little Circle grew up, it rebelled, and became an Ovaltine. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/44 "2011-05-28T15:22:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > They are still corn flakes(with rice added.) When added to the Total Corn Flakes and the bulk and individual packets of Frosted Corn Flakes packaged for military and camp use, I think we can safely say that General Mills made corn flakes. I wasn’t contradicting you. I was just referencing the weird line in the commercial. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/45 "2011-05-30T02:54:01Z")
This is probably the wrong place for this: Three pregnant woman were happily knitting in a doctor’s waiting room. After a while, one of them put down her wool and swallowed a pill. “If you don’t mind me asking,” the woman next to her said, “What was the tablet you just took?” “Iron,” the woman replied. “I don’t want my baby to be anemic.” The mum-to-be smiled, stopped knitting, then popped a tablet of her own. “I take calcium,” she explained. “I want my baby to have strong bones.” A few minutes later, the third expectant mother laid her knitting needles aside and emptied half a bottle of medicine down her throat. “It’s Thalidomide,” she volunteered. “I don’t know how to knit sleeves!” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/46 "2011-05-30T05:12:56Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I wasn’t contradicting you. I was just referencing the weird line in the commercial. Sorry. No prob. BTW, that is one of my favorite commercials. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/47 "2011-05-30T16:08:52Z")
“Suppose you are advertising lemonade, or, not to be invidious, we will say perry. If you say, ‘Our perry is made from fresh-plucked pears only,’ then it’s got to be made from pears only, or the statement is actionable; if you just say it is made ‘from pears,’ without the ‘only,’ the betting is that it is probably made chiefly of pears; but if you say, “made _with_ pears,’ you generally mean that you use a peck of pears to a ton of turnips, and the law cannot touch you—such are the niceties of our English tongue.” – Dorothy L. Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise” ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/48 "2011-05-31T14:17:18Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > No prob. BTW, that is one of my favorite commercials. I was a teenager when it first came out and remember thinking it had to be aimed at us potheads. And it’s a full minute long! Show that during the Oprah finale and you’re on the hook for a cool $2million. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050/49 "2011-05-31T14:27:35Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > This is probably the wrong place for this: > > Three pregnant woman were happily knitting in a doctor’s waiting room. After a while, one of them put down her wool and swallowed a pill. > > “If you don’t mind me asking,” the woman next to her said, “What was the tablet you just took?” > > “Iron,” the woman replied. “I don’t want my baby to be anemic.” > > The mum-to-be smiled, stopped knitting, then popped a tablet of her own. “I take calcium,” she explained. “I want my baby to have strong bones.” > > A few minutes later, the third expectant mother laid her knitting needles aside and emptied half a bottle of medicine down her throat. “It’s Thalidomide,” she volunteered. “I don’t know how to knit sleeves!” Tasteless or not, this joke is fantastic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thalidomide-joke-really/583050.md?page=2)