The woodburning story reminds me about the time I absentmindeldy picked up a soldering iron by the tip.
I put it down real fast.
My dad had a lead soldier kit when he was a kid- it included a little electric stove to melt the lead and the molds to pour in the molten metal.
The coolest toy I had was a Mattel Thingmaker- a hot plate on which I cooked up little plastic toys in aluminum molds. It was as fun to spit on the plate and watch it sizzle as it was to make the toys!
[QUOTE=Radithor radioactive medicine]
Byers stopped consuming Radithor in 1930 when his teeth started falling out and holes appeared in his skull.
[/QUOTE]
This was a man of sound judgment.
Oh, another one I can’t believe: gold prices. When I got married in 2000, I bought a bunch of bracelets and jewelry for my fiancee because it was so cheap. I think it was something like $200 per troy ounce (currently $1700 average through 2012.) I paid like $100 for my wedding band, so it might be worth like 1k today, roughly a 900% increase.
Codeine linctus is prescription free. I can go into a chemist tomorrow and get 600mg of codeine (roughly equivialnt to 30mg of heroin, although probably more given heroin’s rather poor oral bioavaliablility) in linctus form.
Indeed I can actually buy morphine over the counter in syrup form as well, either as kaolin and morphine solution for diahorrea, or as gee’s linctus with some peppermint oil.
There is no real difference between codeine, morphine, and heroin in oral form if you take equivilant doses (apart from a ceiling affect with codeine that would be at a dose no one without tolerance would be sane to take, and some histamine stuff).
Looks at OP’s name and back at the posting … :dubious:
Or look at post number 26.
Right. They didn’t exactly trade in milligrams back then, so how much would you need to chug to get the equivalence of 5 grams of heroin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bayer_Heroin_bottle.jpg
Nobody gets mono from kissing and everyone has HSV.
OK Doc. How is mono spread, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have HSV. You got some splainin’ to do.
Yup, that’s why I made the comment I made about simple linctus in the first place! It was rather hard to think of something sufficiently cunning to say, given that the main things you can say about simple linctus are:
- Zero strength (i.e. no active ingredient)
- Comes in many different flavours
- Usually smooth on the throat
- Er…
So I made my rather weak joke (that was the only reason I commented on simple linctus in teh first place) but perhaps it would have been better not to try for antyhing!
5 grams of heroin is a MASSIVE amount. Especially when we are talking pure diamorphine. I doubt that the image is captioned correctly, but if it is then it is far larger than it looks.
Roughly speaking, intravenous heroin is barely twice the strength of intravenous morphine - or about three times the strength of oral morphine. A therapeutic dose of that (morphine) can easily start at 5mg.
There may be extreme heroin addicts that genuinely take 5 grammes of the stuff every day but as I’m sure quadgop will confirm that is a ludicrously huge amount that seems very implausible to me indeed. And I am talking as someone who daily takes a dose of opioids that would kill most people - but it’s still an order of magnitude off that amount.
It is true perhaps that they didn’t trade in milligrams (where they = UK/US - I have no idea about Germany) - but they did trade in fractions of a grain. Perhaps the container was for five grains. I find it very implausible that a bottle that size would have 5 grammes in it.
You just made an indian cry on TV.
The Lobotomobile.
But this is a cultural change, based on changes in the way we use our cars, and what we do in them. Back then, cars were too important to drink in them – you might spill. I remember as a child my father coming home with a new car, and we all had to go in the house and change into good clothes before we could take a ride in it.
And eating in your car – unthinkable! When they opened an A&W drive-in in town, my parents were convinced it wouldn’t last* – nobody with a decent car would ever risk eating in it. We kids begged for months to go there. Finally got to as a special treat on my sisters’ birthday. Mom brought an oilcloth tablecloth which she put across the laps of us kids in the backseat, and smaller squares of oilcloth for her & dad in front. The restaurant had a station near the exit with buckets of water, sponges, squeegees, etc. so people could wash off any spills on the side of their car before being seen on the public road. On busy weekend times, they hired 1 or 2 high school boys to work at this.
So why would auto companies want to encourage somebody to mess up their beautiful car by drinking in it? That would show a serious disdain for their product.
- My father reminded me of this, some 20 years later, when A&W closed – “See, I told you they wouldn’t last!” (They were driven out of business by McDonalds, Burger King, etc., but he didn’t say that.)
I preferred the ‘swinging’ trend of the 60’s/70’s. 
My Dad’s 1969 Chevy Nova had shoulder belts–tucked into clips on the ceiling. You were supposed to use them with the lap belts, but we never did.
Back before McDonald’s had in-house seating, I remember we’d get our takeout, and eat in the car in the parking lot. Sis and I would spread out our burgers, fries, and milkshakes on the back deck, and eat them there. Mom and Dad would use the glove compartment door for their drinks.
A&W closed? Are you sure? I’ve eaten at them as recently as two weeks ago. Now, if their drive-ins with the roller-skating waitresses are gone, I won’t disagree; but from what I see, they have moved to a more traditional fast-food format, and are still in business.
The one in our town closed. Though I believe the chain in general is much decreased over the years.
Not in Canada. They’re still everywhere up here. Not anywhere near as ‘everywhere’ as McDonald’s and Burger King, but about on par with Wendy’s, IME.
A&W’s folded into the Yum group lately. I see several around here that are in hybrid restaurants with KFC.
UK maybe, but not in Pennsylvania.