The Longest Shot And Texting vs. Flying Uteruses

 May 4, 2022

   Tonight you will get the first look at the longest shot in the West. That would be this one:

Billy Dixon's Scratch Shot

   Is there scientific evidence that proves it's possible to shoot a rifle 1,538 yards and actually hit a target? I think you might be surprised by the answer to that question.

Daily Whip Out:

"Billy Dixon With A Borrowed Big Fifty"

Sometimes I Feel Like A Nut

   In 22 studies of 44,000 people researchers found that those at high risk of cognitive decline tended to have better outcomes if they ate more nuts—specifically walnuts. Thank you Kathy Sue, for buying me all those walnuts. That is your name, isn't it?

And Speaking of Nuts

   A fair amount of people in any era hate new technology (I hate texting for example) and develop unfounded fears about it. For example in the 1860s there was alarm about the high speeds trains were reaching. This report in the British Lancet underscores all sorts of dangers about train travel, including reports of headaches, deafness, sleeplessness, depression, numbness of limbs, softening of the brain, epileptic seizures and apoplexy.

A January 4, 1862 report

on public health and train travel

   Some "experts" even claimed a woman's body was not designed to go 50 miles an hour and predicted that their uteruses would fly out of their bodies if they rode in a train going that fast. 

   "Of course, quite a few uteruses did fly out, but at least the women weren't texting."

—A certain nutjob cartoonist

   And, just in case you thought I was making all of this up and this is just some kind of a joke.

The Health Dangers of Texting

   A news report in The New York Times yesterday cites an increasing number of U.S. citizens reporting physical ailments from texting. Physical therapists in New York are seeing "more patients than ever with pain as well as joint and soft tissue ailments such as tendinitis in the fingers, thumbs, wrists, elbows, necks, shoulders and upper backs—and that mobile phones were most likely playing a part." One expert cited in the article said, "while so-called smartphone pinkie isn't an established condition, using your pinkie to hold the weight of your phone could lead to problems."

"The more things change, the more they remain the same."

—Old Vaquero Saying