Sunlight Gives Folks Something to Sneeze At
Over in the allergy division of Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, a couple of doctors noticed something peculiar: On the questionnaires about causes and symptoms that patients fill out, people were ticking off “sunlight” and “nose.”
So Dr. David Lang and Dr. William C. Howell III set out to track the “solar sneeze,” an elusive and little-understood phenomenon. Nine months of rigorous research yielded the news that up to a third of the people studied sneezed upon entering sunlight--some of them up to 20 times.
“In most individuals who sneeze in response to sunlight, the reflex seems to be independent of any nasal abnormality,” Lang said. “It just consists of an ocular stimulus provoking a naso-expulsive response. In brackets, a sneeze.”
The sneeze appears to result from a kind of crossed wire in the brain--an overlap of the protective reflexes of the eyes and nose. Bright light triggers a response in the eyes, such as tears; and in some people, it also stimulates sensory nerves in the schnoz.
Voila! The naso-expulsive response!
Fortunately for the afflicted, the attack is followed by a “refractory period” when further stimulation won’t provoke the response. Like a toilet flushing, Lang explained; for a while after, you can’t flush again.
Previous researchers have suggested that solar sneezing may be inherited and may affect whites and men more than other groups. One researcher dubbed it the ACHOO syndrome (autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst syndrome).
“Other authors have suggested that this tendency may be particularly troublesome for baseball outfielders and airplane pilots,” Lang and Howland wrote in a report this month in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. “We would add punt return specialists, sky divers and high-wire acrobats.”
Give Me Liberty!
Haithem Putrus, formerly of Baghdad, currently of Chula Vista, discovered the Statue of Liberty last July 4 weekend. He was watching TV and there she was--Lady Liberty, symbol of freedom, Ronald Reagan, your tired, your poor, your huddled masses . . .
It was too much.
“I got caught up in the celebration of the world’s most famous symbol of freedom last year,” the 30-year-old former supermarket owner remembers ruefully. “And I had to name my pizza parlor Liberty Pizza!”
Putrus ditched his tentative name, Express Pizza, and sent away to New York City for an eight-foot-high, pale green replica of statue. She arrived in parts. But when Putrus opened Liberty Pizza late last year, Lady Liberty graced the roof.
Then in January she caught the eye of a zoning official cruising by on Hilltop Drive. A permit was required, he informed Putrus. Putrus took a snapshot down to the city Planning department. But officials informed him she was too tall for his roof.
“I said, ‘This is the Statue of Liberty!”’ recalls Putrus. “ ‘This is the symbol of freedom!’ And, it’s not that big. It’s eight feet tall. It’s not like someone putting a big orange or a big hot dog on top of their roof. . . . This is a symbol of freedom !”
Putrus went before the Chula Vista City Council, where, he says, he received less than a warm welcome. The council gave him four months to take the thing down. But he has chosen, conscientiously, to object, saying: “This is a sad day for liberty and the American way.”
A final showdown is scheduled for today before the City Council. In the meantime, Putrus has kept his eyes peeled: “There’s a statue of a horse on top of the roof of a building on Broadway. And there’s about three or four horses on Main Street!”
Trading Places
Charles Pierce--”male actress” and doyenne of female impersonators--brought Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Collins, Mae West et al to Symphony Hall Saturday night, where he and they played to a near-full house.
Swathed in red lame slit up perilously close to the hip and a red feather boa that outstretched the grand piano, Pierce materialized beneath the rococo ceiling, Spanish Baroque dome and massive chandelier, and delivered his opening shot:
“Carmen Miranda must be buried here!”
Observed one member of the mostly male audience, and a veteran visitor to the hall, “It was the first time I’ve gone to Symphony Hall when there were lines outside the men’s room.”
Black Mark for Kobey
Swap meet magnate Monty Kobey made a few enemies during his tenure atop the billboard at Sunset Court and Mission Boulevard in North Mission Beach. Like fish and guests that in three days are stale, Kobey’s illuminated visage overstayed its welcome, neighbors say.
So when Sunday’s typhoon threatened to topple the billboard and police closed off the boulevard and decapitated the sign, one woman, pushed to the limit, finally avenged herself upon the mighty Kobey.
When the billboard was carted off, Kobey had a big, black mustache.
