Grab Bag Medical Mystery Master:

Have you ever wondered if TV’s Dr. House could really solve those bizarre medical cases he seems to handle so readily? Meet a real-life medical mystery master, Dr. Thomas Bolte.

Discover Magazine

This Sherlock of the medical world specializes in cases all others have misdiagnosed or abandoned, as in this case, excerpted from a Discover magazine article on Bolte:

A woman presented with headaches, fatigue, hives, rash, and countless chemical sensitivities. After a lifetime of fine health, she broke out with the most annoying physical symptoms from using soaps, shampoos, and cleansers.

After a blood workup revealed the presence of hexane, a petroleum derivative known to cause nerve damage, Bolte asked her about her living conditions. What, he asked, makes your home different from other people’s? She boasted that she had a fine new home. After living in a one-bedroom apartment for years, she bought and renovated the apartment next door after the birth of her first child. Now she had a roomy three-bedroom apartment, the kind of place New Yorkers would kill for.

What happened to the extra kitchen? Bolte asked her.

Now it’s my master bedroom, she replied.

You have a gas stove, right? Where did the old stove in the old kitchen sit, exactly? Can you tell me? Do you remember?

The patient’s eyes widened. My bed is right up against the spot, she said.

A few days later, at Bolte’s insistence, the woman had the gas company inspect her apartment. They located and corrected a leak in the woman’s bedroom, not far from her headboard. The patient bought and installed a small sauna unit, which she used to sweat out the toxin. Her symptoms resolved in six months.

If you ever have need of such a medical detective or know someone who does, click here and then get yourself to New York City.

Grab Bag Wart Warrior:

The most effective methods to get rid of the unsightly viruses don’t necessarily pull you into the doctor’s office.

1. Doing nothing does work... warts will usually go away on their own, but most people can’t stand leaving them alone.

2. Over-the counter paint-on salicylic acid preparations can be effective, if done often enough.

3. Perhaps my favorite is the duct tape method, and it was the published finding of a study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine that duct tape “was significantly more effective” than freezing warts with liquid nitrogen in a doctor’s office 🙂

The most common approach is to totally occlude the wart with a piece of duct tape, leaving it in place for 6.5 days. Remove the tape, debride the softened wart with an emory board, leave uncovered for 12 hours, and repeat the process again, uncovering every 6.5 days and debriding until the wart is gone.

I want you all to know I showed great restraint in not sharing some dizzyingly grotesque photos of warts… consider yourself spared. You may not be so lucky next time 🙂

Grab Bag Back-to-School Saver:

If the fine works of young hands are swamping your refrigerator door, maybe this will be a godsend:

Li’l DaVinci Store and Display Art Cabinet

This little gadget nicely frames the latest artistic creation, giving the artist that sense of accomplishment that a proper frame lends to any fine work of art. But it also stores up to 50 pieces, making it the perfect keepsake storage (beats the heck out shoving them under your bed).

It comes in two sizes to accommodate 8.5″ x 11″ or the grand 12″ x 18″ for those big pre-school masterpieces. If Van Gogh’s mom or grandmother had this keepsake frame he probably wouldn’t have gone MAD!

Grab Bag Condensed Internet:

The internet has, frankly, become a bit unwieldy. I think I reached the end of it a few weeks ago when I was looking to replace some small glass eyes for a carved wooden bear I have. After looking at craft stores without success, I turned to the internet and, after a entering the terms “glass eyes”, my search results offered up, I kid you not, GlassEyesOnline.com (link provided, just in case you’re running low on your glass eye reserves).

So, I think that must be officially the end of the cul-de-sac of the far reaches of the internet. And if there is a website dedicated to all eyes glass, what other websites are out there? It’s Carl Sagan-ish, really. Billions and billions.

So behold a site called Popurls.com (Popular URLs)… It culls the best tidbits from the brightest and most popular sites and delivers the headlines (or images) with links on one big page. Very cool.

I doubt, however, that GlassEyesOnline.com would have appeared there. Maybe I’ll start a site called Obscureurls.com 🙂

Grab Bag Brain Game:

TOTALLY forgot a noggin workout last week… so here’s TWO this week 🙂

JEOPARDY!

PARADISE ISLAND WORD CONSTRUCTION

(You must sign up for a free account at this site – Fitbrains.com – some games are “premium members only” but many games are free, like this one)

Grab Bag Adorable Funny Stuff:

Many thanks to my buddy Slim Paley for sending this to me:

HOW TO HUG A BABY CORRECTLY

1. First, ya gotta FIND a baby:

2. Second, be sure the object you found actually IS a baby by employing the classic “sniff” test:

3. Next you will need to flatten your baby to prepare it for the hugging process:





4. Begin the “paw slide”, flanking your baby to keep it still:





5. Finally, prepare for photo opportunity by rotating baby to face camera, tilt head towards baby and try your best to pull up your wrinkles: