The Times they aren't a changing

The elusive shortuct to losing weight

Fortunes have long been made in the weeks between the making and breaking of New Year's resolutions. But with all the get-thin-quick schemes on the market, experts have always found it almost impossible to get the real, tough-love message across.

In today's Science Times, under the headline, "No Gimmicks: Eat Less and Exercise More," Jane Brody explains:

And really, it doesn’t matter whether you choose a diet based on your genotype or the phases of the moon, or whether you cut down on sugars and starches or fats. If you consume fewer calories than you need to maintain your current weight, you will lose.

In 1931, the city's Health Commissioner offered identical advice: "The only safe and sure way to reduce is to eat less and to exercise more."

July 21, 1931
WARNS OF QUACKERY IN WEIGHT REDUCING

Dr. Wynne says all pills and other preparations that decrease fat are poisonous

Hold diet only method -- Must be combined with exercise and not overdone, he declares on radio

"Fakers, quacks and charlatans" of offer for sale "weight reducing pills, soaps, medicines, gadgets and the like" were denounced as menaces to health yesterday by Health Commissioner Wynne in the weekly Health Department television broadcast over station WGBS on "Reducing Weight Safely."

Every week, he said, letters were received at the Health Department from person who had fallen into the hands of some quack asking how they could regain the good health they lost, together with their fat, by innocent-looking soaps or pills.

"Every once in a while," Dr. Wynne continued, "we read in the newspapers of the death--frequently by suicide--of actresses or other prominent persons who ruined their health trying to keep think by so-called 'easy' methods. How many others there may be in this city who have destroyed their happiness by the same method I have no means of knowing. But I do know this, that there are many of them, perhaps thousands.

"Be warned before taking any pills for weight reduction that are called harmless by the salesman or the advertising. Pills that really reduce your weight cannot be harmless, for they are poisonous. They produce their effect by breaking down the body. They reduce your weight by the same route as a destructive disease might reduce you, and leave you at the end in such a condition that you may never recover. If the pills you hear about are not poisonous, then they cannot produce reduction and are only frauds."

Hath not a juvenile eyes?

Ever since the angst-ridden psychology of the teenager was deemed distinct from that of adults -- sometime after World War II -- parents and scientists have puzzled over what makes these maniacs tick.

Based on an article in today's Times by Jane Brody, under the headline Teenage Risks, and How to Avoid Them, we are no closer to  solving this mystery.

It is an all too familiar tale, prompting parents and school officials alike to wonder why risky behavior is so common among teenagers and what might be done to curtail it. Is it that teenagers think that they are immortal or invulnerable, immune to the hazards adults see so clearly? Or do they not appreciate the risks involved and need repeated reminders of the dangers inherent in activities like driving too fast, driving drunk, having unprotected sex, experimenting with drugs, binge drinking, jumping into unknown waters, you name it?

It was clear as early as the 1940s that the teenage brain's version of rational behavior was entirely unlike that of their parents and teachers. Perhaps they should all be quarantined.

October 3, 1949
‘TEEN-AGE’ DRIVERS STUDIED AS A PERIL

By BERT PIERCE

JACKSON’S MILL, W. Va, Oct 2—Reckless and careless complexes of youthful drivers were emphasized today as the chief factor for the increasing highway accident rate attributed to the teen-age bracket.

The ego and thoughtlessness of youngsters came under close scrutiny and their mental trends and twists were weighed at the opening session of the National Conference on High School Driver Education here.

An innovation in death dealing “pranks” was presented with a description of the “bumper-bump-bumper” tag game on the road. Participants gamble with their lives by chasing another vehicle and crashing into it.

Already this so-called pastime has caused many fatalities and injuries to teen-age drivers and others on the highways of the Mid-West.

Barry White, meet Lauren Bacall

Reading through newspapers old and new it becomes obvious that one should be skeptical whenever he sees the phrase "a new study has shown."

Well according to a new study described in today's Times, women are more likely to get it on with men with deep voices:

Study Finds Reproductive Edge for Men With Deep Voices

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

A man with a deep voice may have a survival advantage, a better chance of passing on his genes.

Researchers have found that men with deeper voices have more children — at least among the Hadza, a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.

I should confess that in this instance part of my skepticism may derive from my own high tenor. But oddly, 70 years ago researchers came to a similar conclusion -- that men are attracted to deep-voiced women. At least that's how one speech professor interpreted the studies:

October 31, 1937
GIRLS ADVISED TO ADOPT LOW-PITCHED VOICE; IT ATTRACTS MEN, SAYS SPEECH SPECIALIST

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y., Oct. 30.--"Men are attracted to women with deep voices," declared Mrs. Allys Dwyer Vergara, Associate Professor of Speech at the College of New Rochelle, outlining a nation-wide broadcast on speech culture, which she will give on Nov. 8.

Defining the deep voice as "a low-pitched voice," Mrs. Vergara pointed out that experiments in acoustics conducted by C.C. Bunch and T.S. Raiford showed that "men hear low tones better than high tones."

If that's the case how can our rapidly rising population be explained given that, as the Washington Post reported in 1930, more and more of us sound like Mickey Mouse. Under the headline, "Men and women found acquiring higher voices," the Post reported "that human voices are becoming higher-pitched and squakier (sic.), with deep bases and contraltos growing scarcer every year, is the belief of George Dodds, a music teacher of Newcastle, England, expressed recently to the Incorporated Society of Musicians."