george washington carver, i carry - and protect - your mantle.

this is a follow-up to my second post ever, in which i called out the ridiculosity of peanut-phobia. specifically, i alluded to a news story in which a teenage girl, allergic to peanuts, was said to have died from kissing her boyfriend, who had eaten peanut butter earlier that day.

in fact, that assessment turns out to have been only so much unfounded hysteria. she died from a severe asthma attack.

we love the sensational. i as much as anyone. but more times than not, occam's razor really does apply. (god, what would i do without wikipedia?!)

btw, look how erroneous first reports were. kind of frightening how quickly unsubstantiated news becomes "news".

the internet giveth, and the web taketh away.

ps -- this section of the wikipedia carver entry is pretty funny.

lucida grande