In the word's of my esteemed son, this is just freaky! "The value of radium is unquestioningly established in chronic and subacute arthritis of all kinds...." Oh, but even better:
So, maybe only my hairdresser knows for sure, but - come on. Let's see, which would I prefer - visit a salon semi-monthly where chemicals that may or may not be toxic are applied to my head, OR JUST APPLY RADIOACTIVE WATER TO MY HEAD ONCE A WEEK, in the comfort of my own home!Back in the early days following Mme. Curie's discovery, it was believed that "radium" was health-giving. Oops. Didn't work out so well for little Marie, now, did it?
Secretly, it's one of my little paranoias....radioactivity. I'll never, ever forget my first x-ray. I was in high school, and fell and hurt my arm. I was literally in tears and hyperventilating as I went into the x-ray room. All I could think about was the fact that my Uncle Costia died while undergoing radiation treatments for cancer.
And my most terrible nightmares always involve a world war, with nuclear attacks everywhere.
I wouldn't mind living in a town that was a target for a nuclear war, as much as I'd fear living just on the outskirts of it....close enough to get the radiation, but far enough away to not die immediately. Like the characters in McCammon's "Swan Song" (which, by the way, if I'd kept my paperback copy would now be worth $109 on Amazon, thank you very much).
I grew up during the Cold War. I remember the drills in school, hiding under our desks and covering our ears to protect our hearing. I remember even then thinking, "There's no freakin' way this DESK is going to protect me from a nuclear blast, even if it does have a really cool little recess to hold my pencils." Just let the bomb land on top of me, okay????
Never death I fear, just the dying part.
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