More Canadian Depravity, Sleeveless in Seattle, Etc. takes

How's this for a bad pair of trends? According to Time, the number of Americans using prescription painkillers for "nonmedical" purposes is on the rise. The article cites a recent federal study that said 1.5 million people were misusing such drugs in 1998, triple the number doing so at the beginning of that decade. One would think such a well-medicated population would feel no pain, but a CBS News poll earlier this year documented an epidemic of chronic pain. Nineteen percent of adults said they're in pain "virtually every day"—21 percent of women, 17 percent of men. While highest among old folks (27 percent of those 65 and up), the incidence reached double digits (11 percent) even among 18-29-year-olds.Maybe it was a relief to see the word "crash" in a nonfinancial context. Whatever the reason, people didn't seem terribly worked up that the 143-ton Mir space station was hurtling toward Earth. (At press time, it was still aloft.) Most of Mir was expected to incinerate in the Earth's atmosphere, and Russian scientists aimed to have the rest splash into the Pacific Ocean. In the event their aim was off, though, an ad for Century 21 assured us the company was ready "Just in case you need to find a new home quickly." (They'd better hope Mir won't have obliterated someone's house.) Lowe Lintas & Partners of New York created the piece.Just 9 percent of them have had an extramarital affair. Bad luck, then, that 17 percent have been married to someone who's had such a fling. These numbers come from an Ipsos-Reid/CTV poll of Canadians who are or have been married or in a common-law union. Twice as many men as women (9 percent versus 4 percent) said they're likely to have an affair in the future. What might lead respondents off the straight and narrow? For women, loneliness would be the principal motive (cited by 37 percent, versus 26 percent of men); among men, it would be sex (cited by 29 percent, versus 8 percent of women). With gasoline prices up and stock prices down, are Americans scaling back their summer-vacation plans? In an online poll by CNN Interactive, a large majority (67 percent) said they're not. We'll see how that holds up if the economy is certifiably in recession by the time summer arrives.It's not one of the storied rivalries of baseball, but the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners have clashed in the playoffs recently. And it's not as if people west of the Hudson demand an airtight excuse for bashing New York City or a single borough thereof. So, an ad for Mariners clothing at the Team Store (via Seattle-based Copacino) offers a droll warning to those who'll wear the stuff. Of course, since Seattle has been having riots on a regular basis of late, that city is scarcely in a position to badmouth the Bronx on grounds of civil peace.

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More Canadian Depravity, Sleeveless in Seattle, Etc. takes

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