A San Francisco Chronicle article by Peter Fimrite noted one of the stranger ballot measures to pass on Nov. 4, in the town of Bolinas, CA:
The measure, submitted by a woman who wears burlap and paints her face with chocolate, advises the Bolinas Community Public Utility District to adopt a policy defining the town as "a socially acknowledged nature-loving town because to like to drink the water out of the lakes to like to eat the blueberries to like the bears is not hatred to hotels and motor boats. Dakar. Temporary and way to save life, skunks and foxes (airplanes to go over the ocean) and to make it beautiful."
Sounds pretty crazy, but it doesn't really surprise me. People who are how shall I put it? a bit eccentric are as likely to take their inspiration from environmentalism (and alternative medicine and the "organic" movement) as from religion or UFOs these days.
And these very special people often send me e-mail.
In an earlier age, they might have penned poems, but our democratic era encourages them to issue manifestoes instead and even to enact laws, in the case of the Bolinas measure (which I would imagine will be difficult to enforce). Here, then, a sampling of some of the strangest exhortations, incantations, screeds, theories, appeals, and exegeses that I've received via e-mail during HealthFactsAndFears.com's first two years, and I assure you they are real, each quote apparently from a different visionary or group with its own unique axe to grind:
- "Stop poisoning yourself with salt-laden foods...Drink orange juice...And escape, at least partially, the perils of competitive materialistic living..."
- "Bread's story is our own story, of life, even if it was written too little about bread, it was a reason for us to eat much of it. It's a prioritarian aliment that we depend on...Dermatology is a vast and spectacular field, but rather spectacular than of research, but the show has no happy-end. We begin with puberty when the first eporeic problems (acne) appear. We stand well and badly at this chapter but nobody feels that it's about a dermatitis that becomes generalized, we get used to it but let's not forget that the derma is the second kidney, having the surface of about 2 square meters, but I promised not to get to the details anymore..."
- "DEAR SIR: WE WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT WE HAVE MANY PLACES IN OUR MARKETS FOR YOUR PRODUCTS LIKE PASTE CANNABIS, MARJUAUNE AND OTHER ITEMS. KINDLY PLEASE GIVE US YOUR BEST PRICE PER KG CIF DJIBOUTI PORT AND PRICE LIST FOR YOUR OTHER ITEMS..."
- "I asked myself (a orphan) why I thought Anyone should Consider these Characteristics? And decided I was trying to suggest a better Awareness of Our Interwoven and Interacting and Solar Energies. And that anyone might want to try an Visualize a Lack of Psychological and Physical Resiliency..."
- "Using Chinese compound recipe, a Chinese herbalist doctor named Wang Jian cured a patient who was 32 years old, AIDS complicated with glossitis, because of the pain and the rotten of his tongue, he had got a poor appetite and became thinner and thinner..."
- "Since 'Death begins in the colon,' you should find out HOW to clean your colon..."
- "DISEASE FREE WORLD: When we walk Backpressure develop in our sole. With required pressure Electricity is generated. This electricity charges our internal organs & endocrine glands to keep them active & efficient. This pressure also helps to raise blood against gravity..."
- "I think you hit the nail on the head. Food should be chosen based on the nutritional content...Some how I'm not sure your sophistry made this clear...So thanks for a great sight, it really keeps me informed about just what's going on. But pay check or not, I think you should be ashamed and go rob banks, or something, where there is less chance of doing harm..."
- "Reduce Body Fat and Build Lean Muscle WITHOUT EXERCISE! Enhance Sexual Performance. Remove Wrinkles and Cellulite. Lower Blood Pressure and Improve Cholesterol Profile. Improve Sleep, Vision and Memory. Restore Hair Color and Growth. Strengthen the Immune System. Increase Energy and Cardiac Output. Turn back your body's Biological Time Clock 10-20 years in as little as six months. All natural, plant based and 100% safe..."
- "Human evolution top theory, competely solve the question of human evolution. human brain software's structure, talent origin, talent predication, talent control. These theories will cause a soccer change. Investors can easily get 100 million $ in the change..."
And finally, the opportunity to escape all the madness by joining a perfect society:
- "We have founded a new society. In our micro-society there is no violence...The people who want to take part into our project, that will be carried on an area extended over 100 hectars, can get into touch with us...there is also the possibility that the human being be immortal but it has become mortal because of its involution...We have the needed techniques and we know the right formullas necessary to preserve a body exhausted because it has not been taken care of in good conditions, unlimited...We are waiting for your appliances which we are going to approach and analyse with maximum sincerity and fair-play...In the future [your] descendants will be able to make part of our society by showing the Card and the Certificate issued by us and if they deserve to be part of this organization or, if desired, they may be only supervisors..."
Or they may move to Bolinas, CA.
