Even without the experts telling us

Uuum, there is something wrong with Blogger.com today. I cannot customize the font.

I got updates from Oprah.com in my email. Today's was very interesting because without the experts telling me, I am prescribing their advise.

How to Treat a Cold
by Robert S. Porter, MD, coeditor of The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy

I was an emergency room doctor for 18 years—12-hour shifts on my feet—and I never stayed home for a cold. When I catch one, I wait for it to go away. That's it. No fluids, no plenty of rest, no vitamin C, no echinacea, nothing. There's no scientific evidence that those things do anything. If a sore throat is really bad, I'll take lozenges that contain an anesthetic, like Chloraseptic; if it's not, I ignore it. If a runny nose is extreme—and I mean like a faucet—I'll take pseudoephedrine. People write articles about chicken soup. It's got a bit of salt, they say, and nutritional value. That's not unreasonable, because you need to get some energy into your system, and when you feel crappy you don't want a BLT and a milk shake. Also, chicken soup's comfort food, and that's important to people. But me? I don't do chicken soup. I wait a week and the cold's gone.

Who love to do pencil puzzles like me? Here is a tip on how to approach crossword puzzles:

How to Do the Crossword
by Will Shortz, editor of The New York Times crossword

First, you look for the fill-in-the-blank clues. They're easy to spot in the clue list and often easy to solve. Also go for the shortest answers first. There are relatively few short words in English, and the same ones tend to appear in crosswords again and again—especially those with lots of vowels, like era, area, ale, ore, erie, etc. It helps to work off consonants more than vowels, because consonants are more distinctive. A "w" or a "z" is going to be more helpful than an "e" or an "i". If necessary, guess at an answer. People say, "Ooooh, So-and-so does it in pen," as if that's a big deal. It just means that you have to cross out your mistakes instead of erase them. I use a pen sometimes, and I still get the answers wrong.