Ethic Soup

Danger! Danger! Don't Let Dogs Woof-Down Easter Chocolates.

DON'T GIVE-IN to that pathetic begging-look from your pet pooch when it comes to chocolates. Chocolate may be delicious for you and have antioxidants protecting you against cancer, but it's poisonous for you dog and could kill it. 

Easter is the time of year when there are copious amounts of chocolate around the house. It's everywhere. Remember that you must keep it away from dogs because sharing chocolate Easter treats with your dog could be a death warrant.

TOXIC FOR DOGS & CATS

Whoa! Chocolate is bad for cats too. We hear more about chocolate being toxic for dogs because apparently once they've eaten some, they crave it -- just like we humans -- and can really woof down a lot, fast. Or, as vets say, the problem is that dogs tend to gorge.

Cats, however, don't seem to have the same craving. You know how they can be finicky eaters. But not all cats are the same, just like kids. Regardless of who likes chocolate the most, it's poisonous for both domestic buddies.

Coffee Overdose Hospitalized Rock Star Dave Grohl of 'Them Crooked Vultures' and 'Foo Fighters'

'BELIEVE ME, IT'S NO JOKE' to paraphrase rocker Dave Grohl, when fans refused to believe that he was hospitalized by a coffee overdose. It was "caffeine intoxication," not the usual drug overdose by rockers.

CAFFEINE INTOXICATION

Not many people know about caffeine intoxication and those who have heard about it often don't give it credence. Yet, it's become a serious problem as more and more frequently people ask for help from poison control centers and hospital emergency departments because they are consuming more and more caffeine. Last year, Ethic Soup wrote the post, "Caffeine is in everything: how much is in you?" which has become one of our most frequently-read posts.

JOCKEY VIDEO TRUE

What happened to Grohl happened about a year ago. However, his band-mates from Them Crooked Vultures, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones, posted a jockey video online about the overdose just last week. In the video, they teased Grohl about his coffee addiction and many fans thought the hospitalization was in jest.

No, No, I'll be Good Mommy: Don't Kill Me

 
MOM'S MAD -- She got no respect from her 18-year-old daughter. So, she killed her, strangled her girl.

It sounds like Mom, Stacey Pagli, 37, was hanging on by her last good nerve. In fact, she told police that her daughter, Marissa Pagli, had "pushed my last button."

Any mother who murders her own child is mentally ill. And seeing her photo, above, you wonder if she was on drugs, or maybe alcoholic. Something doesn't look right. Even if I didn't know that the photo was taken by police 'after' she had murdered, the face pictured would scare me.

It happened Thursday in the family's campus apartment for staff at Manhattanville College, in Purchase, N.Y. Marissa, pictured right, had grown up on this campus and this year was a freshman. Her daddy, John Pagli, was a maintenance supervisor. He found his daughter dead and his wife unconscious. Mom had tried to kill herself too.

Reduce Stress: Study Finds Deep Breathing, Soft Music As Good As Massage

   

AHHHH...I IS SO RELAXED.

A great way to relieve stress, and just let your tongue hang out, is deep breathing while listening to soft music. That reduces stress as much as an expensive massage, according to health researchers reporting in the journal Depression and Anxiety.

Scientists at the Seattle-based Group Health Research Institute studied patients with generalized anxiety disorder -- a condition involving excessive worry that makes normal life difficult, creating a lot of stress. 

GENERALIZED ANXIETY  

Researchers divided 68 stressed patients into three groups for 10 treatments of deep breathing, massage or thermotherapy, where arms and legs are wrapped intermittently with heating pads and warm towels. (My tongue is hanging out just thinking about the thermotherapy wrap!)

"We were surprised to find that the benefits of massage were no greater than those of the same number of sessions of 'thermotherapy' or listening to relaxing music," says Karen Sherman, lead researcher.

Dutch Nurses Say "Hell Nee" to Patient Demands for Sexual Services

SERVING PATIENTS some hot chocolate is one thing, but responding to their demands for sexual services, claiming it oughta be part of standard nursing care, is another thing altogether.

A union representing Dutch nurses (pictured in the vintage cacao ad above) launched a national campaign in Holland yesterday against these demands. Calling the campaign "I Draw The Line Here," the union is publishing an advertisement featuring a nurse covering her face with crossed hands.

Out of the Sewers, Into Federal Prison: Birmingham's Langford Gets 15 Years

 

'Langford In The Sewer'

Copyright by Sharon McEachern   

 

Larry Langford is headed to Federal Prison. Sentencing was this week -- 15 years. He says he'll be appealing his 60-count conviction, but...

Birmingham's Mayor, that's ex-mayor now, has been the focus of five Ethic Soup posts (following with links) -- the first when arrested, the second when convicted on 60 counts, the third about Birmingham's bankruptcy exposure, the fourth on Birmingham's new mayoral race with 14 candidates and the fifth is this post on sentencing.

In Langford's trial, after six days of testimony, a federal jury took less than two hours to convict the mayor on 60 counts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. The conspiracy took place from July 2002 until May 2007, during which the former mayor took $241,000  in bribes in exchange for giving $7.2 million in sewer-bond and derivatives business to a friend who was an investment banker.

Bullies Keep Japan's Princess Aiko, 8, from School: Panic Attacks, Tummy Aches

 

It's not just American schools that have problems with bullies. Little Princess Aiko, the eight-year-old granddaughter of the Japanese Emperor, is too sick to go back to her exclusive private school because of suffering a series of anxiety attacks and tummy aches.

FEAR AT SCHOOL

The second-grader appears to be adventurous and athletic, as seen in the photo, right. However, "rough behavior" at the hands of boys at Gakushuin school in central Tokyo, have caused her "feelings of fear," reports The Times (UK).

"Word of the mysterious anxiety attacks emerged at a regular press conference of the Imperial Household Agency -- the opaque bureaucratic institution that surrounds and protects the world's oldest royal family from the public glare," says the London newspaper.

Yes, but not from school bullies.

School Secretly Spies on Students at Home with Laptop Webcams

IT'S AN INVASION OF PRIVACY and the outrage is palpable. School administrators distribute free computer laptops to all of its 2,300 students at Harriton High School in Ardmore, PA., a well-heeled Philly suburb. And then they use the laptops' webcams to spy on the teenagers when the students are at home.

It's hard to believe -- your school principal is a Peeping Tom, maybe breaking child pornography laws. And, it looks as if the Superintendent of the school district is lying to cover his own sorry ass along with the heinies of the high school's administrators.

AMERICAN EDUCATION IS A MESS

The American educational system slides lower and lower with each passing day and each news story of abuse by teachers, coaches, counselors, principals -- even school secretaries. I am truly amazed that parents haven't stormed the schools and school board meetings with baseball bats in hand.

If your kid is a student in the Lower Merion School District, you may want to have a one-on-one with Superintendent Dr. Christopher W. McGinley (pictured right). Advise him that parents -- actually no one -- believes his attempt at subterfuge. It's as if he shouted "I do not have a receding hairline."

First, more explanation of what happened, drawing attention that a problem existed.