| A local drinking club where members justify their consumption by including running in an evening's activities recently added a legend-worthy anecdote to boost its zany reputation.
This may be the first time city police and the fire department's hazardous materials folks responded to a Calgary Hash House Harriers event before any of its members had consumed potentially lethal quantities or mixtures of intoxicating substances.
Five emergency services vehicles, including Haz Mat trucks, along with 11 personnel, arrived at the Weaselhead natural area this spring answering a call about potentially hazardous piles of white powder spread throughout the area.
As the Calgary Fire Department's press release states: "The initial concern was that the powder may have been a poisonous substance set out to kill rodents…. The white powder was in small piles along secondary footpaths as well as areas with no paths."
Turns out, the piles of white powder were one of three devices the Hash House Harriers used to mark the trail for that evening's run. (A typical HHH run has dedicated members mark a trail, often with several misleading paths just to make things interesting.) The powder was only flour – but with a twist. Whatever the makeup of this variety of flour, when wet, it turned red. Easy to see why people were concerned.
"Haz Mat officials are working with running club officials to ensure that the proper authorities are advised of future races where the flour may be used," the release states.
THESE AREN’T YIPS OF JOY
Anyone saying golf is 99 per cent mental needs a good dose of electricity.
Not intended to cook the theorist, the electrical waves emitted are only meant to measure a golfer's predisposition to "the yips."
"The yips" is a golf term describing the inability of a golfer to perform a nice, clean, complete stroke on a ball, especially when putting or chipping under pressure. Scientists in Arizona, a noted golf hot spot, tested 20 male golfers and determined that the yips may be a "task-specific movement disorder similar to writer's cramp and musician's cramp."
In a lab at the Mayo Clinic, the golfers were monitored for muscle activity with some kind of fancy electrical devices while they were putting. Tests showed those cursed with the yips had a muscle contraction in their forearms just prior to contacting the ball.
The study revealed that 50 per cent of the golfers with the yips showed they had the movement disorder, while the other 50 per cent with the yips did not. Those with the movement disorder, however, made fewer putts and missed their putts by a larger margin than their non-movement-disorder, yip-plagued partners.
Not surprisingly, the golfers without the yips who were tested did not reveal this score-raising, club-banging, curse-inspiring movement problem. The study offered no potential solutions to get rid of the yips.
In an independent study, it was found that readers prefer to hear about studies on things relating to 18 holes conducted by neurologists as opposed to proctologists.
SPEAKING OF CHEEKS
Those contemplating keeping active while vacationing in hot, sunny, salt-water destinations should add a jar of diaper cream to accompany the suntan lotion and pink nose zinc.
Apparently, this one product could save many a Calgarian days of post-activity pain. Living in this desert-like part of the Prairies, we‘re often unaware of the minor hazards of the ocean. So when some landlubber decides to rent a jet ski and cruise the harbour for 30 minutes to get off the beach and do a bit of an upper-body workout, he or she must remember the salt-water factor.
Reliable sources say ocean water not only tastes bad, but also causes severe chafing when wet skin is continually rubbed for extended periods. Lying on a beach is one thing, but forced inactivity due to chafed skin is another beast altogether. |
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