20
muse: to ponder; to be absorbed in deep thought
9 february 2012
www.uwa.edu/muse
fact or fiction
weird news or urban legend? you decide.
Did “Mikey” actually die from eating Pop Rocks and drinking Coke? alan brown In 1975, General Foods put an amazing new candy on the market. “Pop Rocks” were tiny bits of fruit-flavored candy containing very small amounts of carbonation. Saliva released the carbonation, causing a popping sound that was very audible. By 1979, rumors had spread that “Mikey,” a child star who starred in a popular Quaker Life cereal commercial, had died after eating a handful of Pop Rocks and washing them down with a carbonated beverage. The rapid influx of carbonation was so great, people said, that “Mikey’s” stomach exploded.
stainton | muse
See page 2 for the answer.
strange news . . .
Man shoots himself in head with nail gun—and survives
alan brown
On Jan. 17, 2012, Dante Autullo, a 32-year-old native of Oak Lawn, Ill., was using a nail gun in his workshop when it recoiled near his head. Thinking that the point of the gun had made contact with his head and then returned to the “ready” position, Dante completed the project he was working on. Later that evening, he looked in the bathroom mirror and noticed a round cut on his forehead. His fiancé, Gail Glaenzer, cleaned the wound with peroxide, and Dante went to bed. The next day, Dante awoke from a nap, feeling nauseated. Gail realized that Dante’s injury was probably more serious than she had
t
s e t a i v i tr
originally thought, so she drove him to Advocate Christ Medical Centre in Oak Lawn. The emergency room doctor recommended that Dante’s skull be X-rayed. The X-ray technician gasped when she saw an 8.3 cm nail in the middle of Dante’s brain, perilously close to the part of the brain that controls motor functions. The doctor explained that Dante did not feel any pain because there are no nerves in the brain. During the ambulance ride between hospitals for surgery, Dante posted the amazing-Xray of his skull on Facebook. Surgeons safely removed the nail from Dante’s brain two hours later.
fifi rodriguez
1. TELEVISION: What was the theme song of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”? 2. MUSIC: What rock group was featured in the documentary “The Kids Are Alright”? 3. MYTHOLOGY: In Norse mythology, who were the Norns? 4. MOVIES: Actress Shirley MacLaine played a nun in which movie? 5. CARTOONS: What were the names of Daisy Duck’s nieces? 6. MEDICINE: Who discovered that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes?
see page 19 for answers! 7. LITERATURE: What was the first novel written by Raymond Chandler? 8. AD SLOGANS: What company advised motorists to “trust your car to the star”? 9. ANATOMY: What is a human being’s normal body temperature in Celsius? 10. GEOGRAPHY: The tiny principality of Andorra borders which two European countries?