h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Very good! I always wondered why the US poles had blue and the Canadian ones were just red and white.

btw- there is still bloodletting. I was recently at a hospital shooting a video and it involved using live leeches (grown in a farm apparently...) They were used to relieve pressure after surgery had left an area in the skull with blood beneath the skin. Nasty looking things, reminded me of when swam in the country in my youth.(yuk)

yeah, i know... leech therapy seems to be drew barrymore's favourite way of getting rid of her bruises... ewwww... would you willingly put one on your skin?

They were truly disgusting, slowly wriggling in a beaker. Of course the nurse had to push them into my face.

They use maggots as well now - to eat rotting skin off a wound to help it to heal. Or something very similar to that.

I think I'd be happier with the leech!

Yes. Apparently the maggots are very good at not eating living flesh but devouring all the necrotic flesh. It seems to be very therapeutic but... still

::runs away from convo with a serious case of the heebildy-geebildies::

<--to indicate the nasty full body spasm instigated by the thought of what that "cure" might feel like.

and again.

Just saw another one on television. In the 17th Century *dentists* would sail into town and sell a liquid for whitening teeth. It worked but it wasn't until months later after he had left that the victims would discover it also removed enamel. It was weak Nitric Acid.

Makes my teeth ache just to type it.

makes you wonder what's *really* on today's toothpaste...

I also heard that the ancient Egyptians didn't shave but dipilitated using cloth and honey. They smeared cloth with the honey, applied it and let it dry and then ripped it off. Ouch! Especially when you think they did their whole heads.

That sounds like a product I've seen advertised here in the states, but apparently invented in Australia, called (I'm NOT making this up) Nad's. It uses some sugar based substance in the same way as waxing. The ads for Nad's (couldn't resist) and similiar products always show some hirsute fellow having a sample carpet swatch removed from his back or leg.

You know the thought just crosses my mind that with all the ways we humans torture ourselves to remove body hair we really are trying to distance ourselves from our primate cousins and it's no wonder we "never invite them for dinner."

Well they've never invited us around, have they? Fair's fair.

Not to be primitive. But isn't that just WAXING?????

I have this great book with loads of stories like this. Like how people used to sell their teeth to be shoved into the gappy gums of rich people...lovely stuff.

Yuck!

Yes waxing, but the male half of the population knows what a daft idea that is!

especially when there are things called 'safety razors' readily available in the market (which i'm sure cost less than wax). still, i suppose, if you like the pain...

what, do you suppose, is it that triggers mankind's revulsion towards hair? do we associate it with tangled masses and therefore to bums and convicts? or does it remind us of medusa's writhing hairdo disaster? i'm interested to hear what you guys have to say... it might make another interesting article

I started a thread somewhere on askh2g2 about that...see if you can dig it up!!

Farlander's addicted to writing. Gotta get the next fix eh?


I do agree, it could make a good article. I still can't get the image from hhgttg tvshow of the chimp at the dinnerparty with the flashing red letters saying "THIS NEVER HAPPENS"

Oh I have so much Hitchikers to catch up with...

I read some place or other that hairless women are more attractive because they are associated with youth and therefore are more amenable. An interesting theory but then why do men shave?

Damn you for coming online when I am watching a Simpsons episode I haven't seen before.

15 minutes and I'll be back online.

Men shave because they don't like getting food in their beards. Also it probably dates back to warring times. Having a beard meant your enemy could pull you down by it and spear you in the back...disadvantage. Also, Romans didn't have them...something to do with religion maybe?

Ah Romans! What did they ever give us! Bloody aqueducts!