Hearts and Minds
Best Medicine
The doctor told his patient to stop using a Q-tip, but it went in one ear and out the other.
Observation
"Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart." -- American humorist Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Medical History
This week in 1875, the first well-documented U.S. birth of quintuplets was five boys born in Watertown, Wisconsin, to Edna Beecham Kanouse and her husband, Edward. Though the babies appeared normally developed, one was stillborn, three died within minutes of delivery and the remaining newborn survived only a few hours. Their total birth weight was 10 pounds, 2 ounces. The doctor -- and the father sent to fetch him -- arrived after delivery, delayed by heavy snow.
Edna would have another child several years later, but she died a few months after that from a contagious disease contracted while caring for a sick friend.
Until 1934 and the birth of the famous and healthy Dionne quintuplets in Canada, the longest known survival of a quint was 55 days, born in Lisbon, Portugal.
Ig Nobel Apprised
The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously, and even harder to ignore.
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