Musings

No Lawnmowers

That’s one of the long list of prohibited items in your checked luggage. With self-service check-in now standard, my conversation with the clerk at the American Airlines counter consisted of some exchanged hilarities about the laminated sheet of prohibited items (complete with little pictures).

I’m off to Palo Alto (on family business), and there’s no more high-tech experience that flying the Nerd Bird from Austin to San Jose. The woman next to me has a laptop, a cell phone, a Palm Pilot and a digital camera with a stack of SmartMedia and a USB cable — all operating simultaneously. To complete the look, she’s wearing a high-tech surgical mask.

Last night, I was using Google to do a little background research on MAO Inhibitors (not for me, thank God!). They inhibit the breakdown of tyramine, an amino acid present varying levels in a weird assortment of foods. Too much tyramine in your bloodstream can lead to a surge in blood pressure, brain hemorrhage and death. So folks using MAOIs have to be very careful. Interestingly, I found that the top-listed hits (and much of the most useful information) came from web sites selling (or extolling) shrooms. I’ll leave the organic chemistry involved in that little association as an exercise for the reader.