General Chat

Why are people so eager to believe ridiculous stories about how stupid other people (often certain kinds of other people) are?

The whole "Mrs Merv Grazinski" thing is a complete falsehood.

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp

Brunvand, the master of urban legends, has a fair bit to say about this legend.

The legend began in the late 1970s when cruise control was first available for RVs (which then was the vehicle always featured in this legend). As he says, "Sometimes it was a retired couple that made the dangerous (but never fatal) error with cruise control, otherwise it was a young and naive driver."

Versions starring a wealthy student from the Middle East also began circulating at that time (one reader recalls seeing such a tale mentioned in a newspaper in 1977 or 1978), but these don't appear to have achieved widespread acceptance until 1984 or thereabouts. Wrote Brunvand: "The implication here, of course, is that rich Arabs don't understand technology, and as a result they may be 'getting what they deserve' when they spend their wealth so lavishly in the United States."

These days, the victim(s) will often be described as an older couple, people you'd find it likely to believe would be baffled by the technology. In earlier versions from around the time of the Great Gasoline Shortage in the U.S., you'd be told the victim was an Arab with too much money and too little sense. In versions earlier than that, the victims were unfamiliar with the technology not because they were new to this country or plain mechanical klutzs, but rather because the technology itself was new.

Brunvand also points out: "A persistent feature in car legends of this kind is the denigration of a minority person (senior citizen, foreigner, woman, etc.) who allegedly misunderstands the nature of some new but fairly uncomplicated technological device."

My mother died back in 1961, she was on pain medication for arthritis for at least 10 years.

After her death, I opened the cupboard of the buffet in the dining room ............... there was a very large box of Codis (soluble codeine) in there. There must have been at least 100 sheets, each of 10 Codis, in the box.

It was all on prescription.



Jill

............ like you, my daughter has grown up with me taking some sort of medication since she was at least 10 (she's now 37). However, we never ever referred to them as "sweets"


Maybe because both of OH's parents were pharmacists and he had a very healthy respect for drugs.



sylvia

Because I take daily medication my kids who are now nearly 14 and 16 have grown up with me taking tablets.

When they were small I kept them on top of my wardrobe but I never hid them as such. My kids knew that they were there but they also knew that to touch was a definate no-no.

The now ex-husband of my neighbour in our old house took anti-inflamatories - really big red tablets. One day his little boy asked him what they were and his dad told him "sweets". How dumb. My neighbour went ballistic when she found out and had the devil of a job getting through to the little boy that dad had lied and they were not sweets and were dangerous.

When we were clearing out my late parents' house, I opened the three large drawers in a dressing table. They were absolutely chocca with presription packs. Heaven knows how they had accumulated them. Of course they were taken to a pharmacy to dispose of but what a waste.

My mother was a nightmare with one of her friends. They compared meds and also swapped if they felt the other had a condition that could be sorted by tablets the other one had. I remember so, so well, when I was pregnant with Alison, my mother trying to persuade me to take some pills that had been given to her by her friend. I refused and she just didn't get the danger of swapping, let alone the danger to me and my unborn. As far as she was concerned "They won't do you any harm".

I'm glad that everyone here seems to have a very healthy respect for their meds. Some aren't that good and take the situation far too lightly.

Must remember to take my tablets before I go to bed.

Jill

Thanks for replies. I have several unopend medicines with unbroken seals, and it is a great pity that they cant be passed on to the surgeries for doctors to give out to patients who need the same treatment. I have changed asthma inhalers and other medicines, not overordered, and these things i cant help. Also I am increasingly finding that antibiotics do not agree with me and so they have to be wasted, I can see that.

Until this week I had assumed when I returned unopened/unused prescripitons to dispensary (part of our surgery) they were returned to shelf., partially used were disposed of.

Not so, before Easter I ordered 2 inhalers and a prescription of Imodium. OH collected on Tuesday morning and received two bags of medicenes. When I checked I had a bag with two inhalers and 100 Imodium or similar and in the other bag same again.

I rang dispensary (they tried to say I had ordered twice) 2 days apart?????
I said I would keep all the inhalers but would return 100 Imodium, I was told that if I did that they would be dumped! By my reckoning I think retail price of these would be circa £60. Shelf date is December 2013 but do not think that even I could use all those. Am enquiring amongst friends and family - one box of 30 has already been earmarked. But such a waste of money. Son reckons it is guidelines in case of tampering - my argument is I have been with this surgery 30 years if they do not know me by now they never will!!

Sylvia - as to child resistent lids, I was horrified many years ago when struggling with a bleach bottle 3 yr old gdau said ' I can do it' and promptly did!

also, if you travel

........... medications MUST be in their "original" containers, with pharmacist's label attached to it.


I keep my medications in their original containers, but OH uses one of those 7 day container for his. He transfers 1 week's worth into the appropriate box every Sunday morning.

He says he can be sure that he's taken the right ones that way.




Like others, I think the main reason is safety .......... no mixing up of drugs.


Here, we are automatically given child-resistant containers by the pharmacist, but I cannot open those (arthritis) and so my file has a notation that I must be given another kind.


In fact, I never could open child-resistant lids .................. I began to worry when my then 5 year old could do it for me, with no problem!




sylvia

The dosage and your personal instructions should be on your personal box, and usually all pills etc., are in sealed foil these days. Do any of you remember when medicines came loose in a brown bottle, with anonymous labels called "The tablets", "the linctus" etc. There must have been some dreadfully dangerous mixups in those days. especially when people looked in cupboards for "those pills that helped you last summer"

I am not sure who was most 'daft', Mrs whotsit or the jury.

I think what they are trying to say is if you put them into a non-medication container, they could be mistaken for sweets. Okay I guess we are talking children but given the happy hobby of litigation, the companies are taking no chances.

And if you ever wonder about the total stupidity of humans and what idiots some of us are just read this. It's why companies have to state the bloomin' obvious on packaging now. Jill

Edited from here

http://creativestudios.com/csdevblog/2007/09/sandwich-lawsuit.html

Mrs. Grazinski (Oklahoma City) had purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her very first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she had set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself a sandwich.

Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this.

The jury awarded her $1,750,000. Plus a new motor home. The company actually changed all of their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons out there.

Maybe it is because the dosage is shown on the original containers in case you forget or someone else has to give them to you.

Why is it that when you get your prescriprion in a paper bag, one of the messages on it says. do not take medicines out of their original container, but on the counter in front of you are several different types of containers for you to make up a weeks medicines? I couldnt do without my weekly boxes, couldnt open all those containers in the mornings!