99.44% pure

[James Smith]

 Many times, even in the supposedly best of
restaurants, I've been served baked potatoes that had
a good portion of that peck of dirt still attached.
Asparagus and mushrooms are other foods that are often
served well "soiled".  But I'd think all flour
contains at least a small amount of finely ground
dirt.  It's not hard to imagine eating a peck of
non-organic material along with all the bread, pasta,
and other cereal products one eats over a lifetime.

I remember a newspaper article I read several years
ago in which a high ranking FDA official was quoted as
stating each American consumes 3 to 4 pints of insect
parts.  And as I recall, he said this was yearly, not
over a lifetime.




--- Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Ron, I have heard the peck of dirt saying as well.
>
>   Also, Ivory soap was manufactured for many, many
> years before there was the remotest possibility of
> its being even .56% contaminated by a dangerously
> radioactive substance.
>   Drool maybe.
>
>   JL
>
> RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject: 99.44% pure
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >=20
> >=20
> Hmmmmm, the math would seem to be pretty simple. If
> you have 100 pounds of=20
> ivory soap and it contains .56% impurity, that would
> amount to 100 x .0056,=20=
> or=20
> .56 pounds or 4.48 ounces. In an 8-ounce bar of
> soap, tht would amount to .0=
> 224=20
> ounces. So the "once molecule for a vbar of soap the
> size of the distance=20
> between the sun and Jupiter seems to be seriously in
> error. I'm not sure w=
> hat=20
> math Paige was using--maybe Paige can elaborate?
>
> Of course the claims are puffery, even so. And if
> you think about it, who=20
> wants .0224 ounces of impurtity in her hand soap?
> What if it is a highly tox=
> ic=20
> radioactive substance? Drool from the soap-maker's
> lips? Dead skin from the=20
> soapmaker's unwashed hand? Roach droppings? Mascara?
> An eyelash? And is each=
> vbar=20
> of soap 99.44% puire, or is that just every ton of
> soap that comes out of th=
> e=20
> factory? If each ton contains one dead mouse chpped
> up and pureed and=20
> distributed in the first 500 bars, and the remaining
> bars are correspondingl=
> y "pure"=20
> (enough to make the average come out at 99.44% for
> the whole ton) does that=20
> count?
>
> One of my mother's sayings was, "Well, they say we
> all eat a peck of dirt in=
> =20
> our lives." Did she make this up, or have others
> heard it as well?
>
>
> >=20
> > "hpst at earthlink.net" wrote:
> > =A0 ---------------------- Information from the
> mail header=20
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "hpst at earthlink.net"
> > Subject: Re: 99.44% pure
> >
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ---
> > --
> >=20
> > Allison,
> >=20
> > My friend James "The Amazing" Randi once asked a
> chemist about the claim o=
> n
> > a homeopathic remedy what x% pure meant.
> >=20
> > His friend replied that it meant that if you had a
> ball of pure water whic=
> h
> > extended from the sun to as I recall the orbit of
> Jupiter only one molecul=
> e
> > of any other substance could exist.
> >=20
> > I've done some of the math on this, and Randi's
> friend was totally correct=
> .
> >=20
> > Bullshit is bullshit and if you look at the labels
> on some homeopathic
> > remedies their claims are physically impossible.
> >=20
> > Page Stephens
> >=20
> >=20
>
>
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James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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