xoxoxoxo
November 30, 2005 9:18 PM   Subscribe

Kiss of death?
posted by skjønn (38 comments total)
 
First link is about the peanut butter kiss allergy tragedy, second link is about herpes being transferred through kisses, third is about Indian scientists worried that kissing and mosquito bites can transfer HIV.
posted by brownpau at 9:20 PM on November 30, 2005


I sense a new episode of "House." Failing that, Law and Order.
posted by drezdn at 9:21 PM on November 30, 2005


The peanut butter story is like something out of a Dead Like Me death.
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:23 PM on November 30, 2005


Natural selection works in mysterious ways.
posted by jam_pony at 9:25 PM on November 30, 2005


I saw the story from the first link in the paper today. That poor boy is going to be one fucked up kid.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 9:39 PM on November 30, 2005


If you really wanna know
If he loves you so
It's in his kiss (that's where it is!)

Damn you Cher, how many more must you kill?
posted by arto at 9:55 PM on November 30, 2005


Yeah, those NIA people are craaaaazy.

"National Integration Assembly"(NIA) is against any sort of acts of terrorism which take lives of the innocent people, who have done no harm to any Terrorist Group."

"I earnestly ask all the terrorist groups kindly to tell me, what enmity the innocent people have got with them. If any of them has any grudge with the govt. or any of their policies, why to attack the innocents?


That'll help.
posted by metaculpa at 10:03 PM on November 30, 2005


I've heard that people can die when their blood clots up and blocks the veins that lead to their brain. Isn't it crazy and ironic that something meant to help you (blood clotting) can lead to you're death?

No? Oh, nevermind then.
posted by delmoi at 10:11 PM on November 30, 2005


Kiss Destroyer
posted by spock at 10:14 PM on November 30, 2005


Be afraid, be very, very afraid. Stay away from people, stay away from kissing, and stay home to read a bunch of lame nonsense on the internet.
posted by caddis at 10:22 PM on November 30, 2005


Good song association, arto, but ouch ouch ouch, you blaspheme with the Cher association ... the Shoop Shoop song is all about Betty Everett. Although I grant you that the Cher version may be deadlier.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:24 PM on November 30, 2005


"Kiss me once, kiss me twice,
C'mon, pretty baby, kiss me deadly."
It's not just a Lita Ford song (or a late film noir) anymore.

Seriously though, ladles and forks, this creeps me out about as much as the story in the Fortean Times strange deaths column about the woman who dropped dead in a restaurant after a waiter walked past her with a platter of steaming shrimp. Just how quick is death from anaphylactic shock?
posted by kimota at 10:48 PM on November 30, 2005


Sigh. You actually have no idea how much the media loves a story like this peanut allergy death. They dress is up as a tragedy, and toss in all kinds of informational sidebars about peanut allergies and how to care after them. Good-meaning people everywhere genuinely wring their hands and care for a moment and think to themselves "I wonder what I can do to improve this situation" until something distracts them.

But I swear to you, when something like this happens, the journalists in the nearest town clench their fists and cry "YESSS!" It starts out as their little story, broken in their local paper, but then the AP and Reuters start calling them and they become local bureau chief to the world for a week or so until attention dies down. It's not only their chance to be a star but their chance to make contacts with the rest of the media world ("fuck above their station" as it were) and possibly network toward a job somewhere other than some bumfuck town where bizarre tragedy only stikes every century.

It's absolutely not news when someone dies of allergies. Like so many things, it only makes it into the news, as a reporter friend of mine put it "when there's something weird about it." Young girl killed by a kiss? That's news. Yound girl killed by smear left of spoon? You'll never hear about it. If you are one of the people who reacts to this story with compassion and caring, I have news for you: you have no clue how much fucked up shit is going down in your world right now. Get ready to cry yourself a river right out your front door over all of it.

Do you know how many banks were robbed in your county this month? How many murders? How many accidental deaths in the home? Of course you don't. But some asshole falls from a rooftop in South Africa and is impaled on the national flag through his asshole and the world is abuzz about it. We're sick animals and people make a living feeding on that sick, sick need to rubberneck.

It's sad and disgusting.

(This was posted two days ago via Waxy, btw - I'd only just gotten over the bitter sadness of it when it was posted here - so THANKS A LOT)
posted by scarabic at 11:37 PM on November 30, 2005 [1 favorite]


Wow. Someone ought to submit your story to the national media, scarabic.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:17 AM on December 1, 2005


scarabic, you gotta give us more credit for perceptiveness. It's obviously only interesting because it's bizarre.
posted by Firas at 12:45 AM on December 1, 2005 [1 favorite]


Alan: Let me tell you something, Bob. Issues are the shit we make up to give us an excuse to run good stories. Judge grabs a female attorney's tits, that's the sex discrimination issue. Nine-year-old kills his brother with an Uzi, that's the child violence issue. People want to read about sex organs and blood. We make up issues so they don't have to feel too nasty about it.
-James Woods to Denis Leary in Clint Eastwood's True Crime

...comes to mind
posted by psychomedia at 1:26 AM on December 1, 2005 [1 favorite]


you blaspheme with the Cher association

I'd assumed arto was saying:

'Damn you, Cher. How many more (great songs) can you kill (with your banal, insipid covers?)
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:57 AM on December 1, 2005


"Do you know how many banks were robbed in your county this month? How many murders? How many accidental deaths in the home? Of course you don't."

I live in Devon, in England. There were bugger all bank robberies and murders in Devon this month. Same as last month. I think that's the same as the month before.
I need to get my shit together and make me a fool-proof plan, liven this place up a little.
posted by NinjaPirate at 3:45 AM on December 1, 2005


Crap Post
posted by johnny7 at 3:52 AM on December 1, 2005


Wow, must be pretty traumatic for that guy. Reminds me of the Rogue origin story.
posted by grouse at 4:10 AM on December 1, 2005


Crap comment
posted by grouse at 4:13 AM on December 1, 2005


I live in Devon, in England. There were bugger all bank robberies and murders in Devon this month.

Are you sure?
How about this 86 year old woman found dead with stab wounds in South Devon?
They originally seemed to be holding her husband, either way, its dodgy.

And from yesterday's paper: Police seek bank raider after attempted robbery in Paignton, Devon.

Your local Crown Court (Exeter) is currently trying two men for shooting and then beating to death a couple in Cornwall.

Which tends to back up scarabic's point that people generally don't have much of a clue about the nasty shit that happens every day.
posted by biffa at 4:45 AM on December 1, 2005


This was posted two days ago via Waxy

And six days ago on Fark.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:53 AM on December 1, 2005


From the NIA "Study" some people believed they got HIV infection due to oral sex including indulgence of kissing, wild kissing, passionate kissing or French kissing.

Did I read that right? Oral sex including kissing? Wow, I lost my virginity aged 8 and I never knew. And someone should have told Clinton.
posted by magpie68 at 5:15 AM on December 1, 2005


hold on
part 1 - strike one, well done, hadn't heard about that at all
part 2 - attempted and failed
part 3 - not in this county

So 1 out of 3.
"Which tends to back up scarabic's point" or doesn't; depends how you look at it.

I was really trying to point out that not everyone lives in and around the constant waste, misery and human failure of major urban settings. Although Exeter does have planning applications in for two of those three.
posted by NinjaPirate at 5:33 AM on December 1, 2005


I miss Dead Like Me...
posted by melt away at 5:35 AM on December 1, 2005


Scarabic,
Thanks for the "Department of Bleeding Obvious" lecture about how the news works.
Yeah, the mundane is elevated into attention-worthy when the reporter finds the angle. D'oh!
Are you going to start shouting about this rotten old rubber-necking world of ours when the next oddball bank heist in Devon only blips on the national radar because, say, the robber wanted to fund Xmas for his kiddies? (All together now - awwwww!)
That's the nature of the beast!

(Though I quite liked your analysis about the local press creaming themselves when a bizarre tragedy pops up in bumfuck town. Spot on).
posted by Jody Tresidder at 5:42 AM on December 1, 2005


What if the kid knew she was allergic?
posted by MrMulan at 5:44 AM on December 1, 2005


The thing I always wonder about these people with peanut allergies is; if they're so allergic that even secondhand or indirect exposure to peanuts is enough to kill them, how do they find out they're allergic without dying?
posted by you just lost the game at 6:02 AM on December 1, 2005


The thing I always wonder about these people with peanut allergies is; if they're so allergic that even secondhand or indirect exposure to peanuts is enough to kill them, how do they find out they're allergic without dying?

Have a little read

To sum it up, it seems as if the allergy develops during infancy, depending on exposure.

If you're extremely allergic to, say, peanut butter, there's nothing saying you'll automatically die when exposed to it - the risk, however, is there.
posted by psychomedia at 7:14 AM on December 1, 2005


Crap Post
posted by johnny7 at 6:52 AM


johnny, how about a link with that? I don't know if someone crapped a post (or is supposed to), or built a post out of crap, or what.

Where did all this peanut allergy stuff come from? I never heard of anyone being allergic to peanuts until a few years ago. Now I can't even send a PB&J to preschool for my kid's lunch. What is going on?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:21 AM on December 1, 2005


Kirth Gerson: allergies in general have been on the increase for a while, although peanut allergies were far from uncommon a few years back.

There seems to be some debate about what's causing it.
A few links - 1 2 3 - but there are a lot more out there if you google it.
posted by edd at 7:37 AM on December 1, 2005


Thanks, edd. Seems like the answer in general is, "There are lots more allergic people, allergic to lots more things, but we don't know why."

Personally, I lean toward this one:
It has now also been suggested that the immune system is reacting to some harmless substances because they have been contaminated by environmental pollution: the immune system does not recognise the food, for example, if it has molecules from tyre rubber attached to it. These molecules sometimes appear similar to enzymes produced by parasites and so the immune system attacks the 'parasite'.
But what do I know?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:03 AM on December 1, 2005


If you're extremely allergic to, say, peanut butter, there's nothing saying you'll automatically die when exposed to it - the risk, however, is there.
Exactly. When they do allergy tests, it's not like the doctor adds more and more BP until they a) find out how much BP it takes to kill you and b) oops, it killed you.

Personally, I lean toward this one
And you lean towards it why? After all, I'm sure that food-packaging plants from years gone by were significantly better at keeping contamination to a minimum.
The other problem is you have an allergy to a kind of food. If you're allergic t BP, it's not going to have tyre rubber attached to it every time you consume it. You might have an allergic reaction once from contamination (which could be considered more poison than anything else if it does have something hazardous to anyone's health), but that does not constitute having an actual food allergy.
posted by jmd82 at 9:01 AM on December 1, 2005


My crackpot theory (which I have absolutely no scientific proof of) is it's a byproduct of antibiotic overuse. The immune system gets less than ideal practice fighting real bacteria, and subsequently goes apeshit over some innocuous food substance or other. This seems to contradict psychomedia's point about onset during infancy, though, but there seem to be plenty of food allergies that go undetected until later in childhood or even early adulthood.

I still hold Cher ultimately responsible, though, even if it isn't her song.
posted by arto at 11:40 AM on December 1, 2005


After all, I'm sure that food-packaging plants from years gone by were significantly better at keeping contamination to a minimum.

I'm guessing that's sarcasm. I will respond as though it is. It is well known that chicken-processing plants in the U.S. are inspected much less rigorously than they were thirty years ago, for instance. (Thank you, Ronald Reagan.) That gives us really high rates of salmonella-contaminated chicken parts in the market. Why should I believe any other food-processing industries are better?

Or it could be Cher.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:33 PM on December 1, 2005


You're welcome, Jody.
posted by scarabic at 2:01 PM on December 1, 2005


The peanut butter kiss story is a big story - it's made it into Austrian and German news. My Austrian girlfriend mentioned it to me between kisses earlier this evening.
posted by syzygy at 6:46 PM on December 1, 2005


« Older Museum of the African Diaspora   |   The Lord's Wal-Mart Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments