European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 2, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Paga 18 columns the stars and stripes monday february 2.1987 today s crossword worrying about drug companies by Andy Booney it always surprises me 10 note How much Money drag companies spend to advertise their products. No one i know takes enough or their pills or applies enough of their Salve Iti support the drug companies addiction to television commercials. Someone Mut be using their stuff but i Don t know who it is. This occurred to me in the Middle of he night. I got up at 3 . All stuffed up and hacking from the symptoms of the Tail end of a bad cold. For a while i Lay awake and feeling miserable. Finally i got up went to the bathroom and opened the door to the Medicine Cabinet. We still Call it he medi Cine Cabinet but there s very Little Medicine in there. Toward the Back of the lop shelf found a Small plastic envelope with two red Coric Idin pills in it. It looked like a free Sample and i think my doctor May have Given me a handful five or six years ago. Anyway i look them went Back to bed and went to sleep. They suppressed my symptoms just As a Denised. The following night the same thing happened to me. I went to the bathroom again but the cupboard was Bare. Down below i found the concoction prepared by the Vicks company called nyquil i recall buying it years ago when i had a cold. The sugar in the syrup had become granulated around the screw on top but the stuff seemed of so i took a whiskey Jigger sized shot of it and went Back to bed. The nyquil worked every bit As Well As the Corico Din. While their form is different one a liquid the other a Pill i suspect their ingredient Are similar. The following Day i was in my basement Woodwork ing shop and la clicked the Middle Finger on my right hand with a Sharp chisel. It was nothing serious but it bled so i went upstairs to the Medicine Cabinet again and got a band Aid. Now these three incidents represent my total contribution to the advertising budget of the drug companies for the past two years t cannot recall any other Lime when i be taken any Medicine or used anything pre pared with a medical purpose by a pharmaceutical company. My question is this do americans really suffer so generally from headaches colds fever Hommo Rhouds and assorted minor ills hat it is Worth appealing to them through such a mass medium As television inasmuch As my bread and Butler and even quite a bit of my dessert comes indirectly from newspaper and television advertising i Don t want to discourage the drug companies from contributing their share but i m puzzled about How they mate enough sales to pay for it. I worry too about which costs the most the ingredient in their products or the advertising. An inventory of the Medicine cabinets in two Bath rooms in our House produced the following three old toothbrushes. Four Small used bars of soap which apparently were taken out of service and replaced by new cakes because we had guests coming. Several tubes of toothpaste. One almost empty bottle of iodine which i know for a fact hoi been there since Brian fell in the Craigs Back Yard and Cut open his Chin 25 years ago. A drugstore bottle with four sulfa or penicillin pills in it dated 1979. A bottle of aspirin. Several Combs three Little plastic bottles of Sham poo i took from hotels and the end of a Roll of toilet paper that must have been put there for the same Rea son the used bits of soap were stored there. I Don t much mind being implored to buy pharmaceutical goods but advertiser should know that i Don t suffer often from the ills their products Promise to cure. To trim Uku in Vii Farewell to the apostrophe bout the gentleman s Model proposal in i English come about by Fiat but changes i evolution. My impression is that the Apos by James kilpatr1ck an engaging letter is at hand from Lawrence Curran of Seattle who proposes to do something Radical about the err am apostrophe. The gentleman a teacher for More than 25 Yean writes skilled and knowledgeable people in positions of responsibility and authority adults All write of Veter an s Day,1 teacher s lounge teacher s strike to have considered the idea that the apostrophe Ful fills no useful function and confuses far More than it illumines. 1 would like to see it eliminated from use in the possessive noun and perhaps from contractions As Well. I Don t suppose there s the slightest Chance that this could Ever happen but 1 think it would simplify the writing of English enormously for the average per son and us elimination would not affect understand ing or meaning to any degree As the context would Tell you what meaning is meant and whether it is singular or that Devilish Little Dingbat does give trouble no doubt about that. A staff writer for the port St. Lucie Fla news Tribune covered a Story about children who had been missing but now were found " of Iacre right Here Connie Smith the editor listed the quote so Well that he repealed it unchanged in a boldface takeout. An advertiser in the Northern Piedmont advantage of Culpeper va., boosted in a full Page and "1 was bom in America and to Are my new 1986 Chrysler a plym Outh s & Dodge in Usa today we read of a group of economists half of whom have doctorate in the Portland oregonian. Thrif Way celebrates it s grand nolo what Abou changes in eng. R appear by evolution apostrophe gradually is disappearing without our noticing it. Now it s teacher College not teachers College authors Guild not authors Guild. The custom used to be to write of the 1920 a More and More i see the economical 1920s. Technically we should write of six months leave or four weeks vacation but these Days the apostrophe often it omitted. 1 do not second the gentleman s motion i merely report it and note in passing that the Rule on posses Sive already admin Many exceptions. It s not for goodness s take but for goodness1 Bob dote and Nancy Kassebaum Amir Kansas s senators but rather Kansas senators Odds and ends and old reminders the Chicago Sun times quoted a theologian we must learn that the gospels Are discreet says who they re discrete meaning individually distinct. Another writer in the Sun times recalled that he gained a close Black Friend in Vietnam no longer was t a diluted bigot Well diluted bigots doubtless Are better than deluded ones. Watch those foreign phrases if you Are bound and determined to show off your French show off your French with care. A writer in the san Antonio express news ended his piece with a flourish West Tret Chic n est Pas it s a esl be Pas pal. United Pren International interviewed an agronomist in rapid City , he discussed weather conditions " hat make soil More suspect Ible to Farmers probably had suspected this All along. The Mol 60h6or Asoo mu.113mikhthis Pat Vatu hts fat. Of omoo i we ties. By Eugene Sheffer across 1 ending for Sand or handle 4 Ono Type of rant Small Branch i 1 a civil t. River 13 River in null 14 Tortoise s rival 15 Zola novel 16 prrnrnlcd17 Cru t be fro Holland is per rates 20 track event22 actress Dawner 24 packed 28 ploy for tune 32 cognizant 44 twin Lle let1. In twi Ille Plum 46 to remedy s3 i to for one55 Anagram for now 56 affirm it summer in parts i Tanh 89 charts 60 defeat at hrs 61 a undo or down1 nil Buie Pluy 2 in manic tree3 Punjab Princess 4 goal 5 swindle 6 abode or the dead7 colonial newsman8 Noil of Bills � kind of acct. 10 to Arclous stone13 City pm Plu yees of Yore solution time it Man. In Lynn 34 Cord gome 35 Blue or white37 arrange in a row39 Itu ill 41 inter locked 43 the heart saturday s answer 19 actor Minco 21 Airport abbr. 23 Diane or Brooks 26 serve meats 26 author Gardner 87 Legal paper 28 counterfeit 29 enamelled Maui aware 30 sacred Bull 31 Jan or john39 grampus 38 girl in town 40 Dawn goddess 42 emulates Greg Louganie 4b observe 47 arthurian lady 48 Asia Dewit being wheel Partite grape s2 . Denizenb4 moist b-2 Hubert my got Man in Yaj cant differentiate be tween Good apv1ce amp bm3 of should t ask for it
