getting caught up

Today I learned that nitrites from vegetables minimize heart attack damage. I was all set to announce that vegetables have hot dog preservatives in them, but it turns out that those are nitrates, which completely spoils my fun.

In other health news, following up on the study that indicates that chubby people live longer than scrawny ones, I learned that Lillian Russell, a 19th century stage star and renowned beauty, weighed 200 lbs, which I can totally believe from this picture here. I can also see from the other pictures in that gallery that if you get to wear a huge frilly dress with a corset, you can weigh pretty much whatever you want and still look pretty good. Ok, styles may repeat themselves, but I really don't see corsets making a big comeback.

In more and better lists:

• The Right-to-Know Network has a list of all kinds of environmental and chemical safety websites with names like "Accidental Release Information Program (ARIP) Factsheet" and "The National Library of Medicine's TOXNET." I think pages like that could keep me entertained for hours if they don't scare me instead.
• Slate has a whole page devoted to things like the effect of the age at which teenagers lose their virginity on delinquency and the frequency with with binge-drinkers rupture their bladders.