Never mind straight talk. How about any talk at all?

Sen. John McCain was asked the big question earlier this week — no, not the war with Iraq or the economy. Viagra and birth control.

His campaign advisor Carly Fiorina started it on Monday when she was talking with reporters about consumer driven health care. She pointed out that some health plans cover Viagra, but not birth control. Women might like a choice in that, she said.

Good point. (Item: McCain twice voted against legislation that would require health plans to cover birth control. )

Then on Wednesday Los Angeles Times reporter Maeve Reston asked McCain about it on his campaign bus.

Here is the video clip from that exchange.

Seems like simple question, doesn’t it? If health plans cover Viagra, should they cover birth control, too? I can’t wait to hear what he does think — if he ever gets around to answering the question.What do you think?

One of the nice things about living in the land-of-the-endless-winter is that you can put off wearing a swimsuit in public as long as possible. Well, summer’s here, and Lands’ End and More Magazine are trying to coax the over-40 set out of our cocoons with some words of encouragement.
Would you believe that nearly half of all women feel more confident in swimsuits after reaching 40? That’s one of the claims of a survey of more than 1,400 readers of the magazine, which caters to women over 40. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the survey was cosponsored by Lands’ End, which makes a line of beachwear designed to hide women’s “swimsuit anxiety zones.” 

Here are some of the body-image secrets revealed: 
- 46 percent say they have rectangular-shaped bodies, compared to 34 percent with triangle- or pear-shapes.
-32 percent say they usually can find a swimsuit they like, though it can take longer than expected.
- 51 percent think one-piece swimsuits are the best way to “complement and balance” their body types; 40 percent prefer “tankinis.”
- 75 percent would rather have a custom-designed swimsuit than free! plastic surgery to look good at the beach.
“Forty-something body confidence is in,” More’s fashion director, Regina Haymes, enthused in a news release.
Maybe. But that only goes so far. Fewer than ten percent would say they “fully embrace wearing a swimsuit.”
When it comes to body image, perfection is an elusive thing.

The cigar-puffing General Thaddeus Ross is a bad guy, all right. So bad that leading medical organizations think that the Incredible Hulk should be rated “R.”

No, it’s not the violence and mayhem Gen. Ross inspires in his quest to capture Hulk that draws objections. It’s his cigar.

Movies are one of the last places in media where kids see people smoking, and thats a big reason why a lot of them start smoking, too, according to anti-tobacco groups and tobacco researchers. It may even be more influential that tobacco advertising, researchers have found. According to a 2005 study in the journal Pediatrics about a third of teens who smoke did so in part because of what they saw in the movies, and those with the highest exposure to tobacco in movies were three times more likely to start smoking as those with the least exposure. A study in the journal the Lancet found much the same thing, and kids whose parents were not smokers were particularly vulnerable.

Tobacco products or smoking occurs in three-fourths of youth rated movies, and 90 percent of “R” rate movies, according to a report by the Legacy Foundation, an anti-tobacco advocacy and research organization.

Legacy, the American Medical Association, and other groups have been pushing the movie industry and Congress to take gratuitous smoking out of films, or give them “R” ratings to reduce the number of kids who are exposed to it. They question whether General Ross’ ever present cigar is really necessary to the plot (such as it is) in The Incredible Hulk or the general’s character. Universal Studios and Marvel Comics “should be especially embarrassed for using comic book movies, which they market to children and know youth will want to see, to promote tobacco,” they said in a public statement.

Films like this that unnecessarily expose kids to tobacco are just as damaging as those that have gratuitous violence and sex, they argue, and should put in the same category.

Are they going over board? What would you think if you knew your kids picked up a cigarette or one of those new sweet little cigars because they saw it in a movie?

Should the movie industry even care about the impact of their products on teen agers?

And why is there so much smoking in movies anyway?

 Have you been looking at your tomatoes lately, wondering if they can hurt you?

This weeks’s news about salmonella poisoning stirred up a lot of anxiety as grocery stores and restaurants across the country scrambled to pull tomatoes off the shelves.
We wondered what, if anything, we can do to make sure tomatoes are safe to eat. Here’s some insight from a conversation with Dr. Heidi Kassenborg, a food safety expert at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
 
 Q/ Can you wash salmonella off a tomato?
 Not necessarily. Salmonella can contaminate the inside of the tomato as well as the outside. You might think tomatoes are pretty impervious, but contaminants can get inside during harvesting and production.
“We’re not saying stop washing tomatoes,” she said. But it’s just like eggs, which are also vulnerable to salmonella poisoning. “They’re not as solid as you think they are.”
Q/ Does cooking kill salmonella?
Yes. “But a good rule to live by is, when in doubt, throw it out.” 
Q/ How does salmonella get into vegetables or other foods?
 It can happen anywhere in the chain of production, from harvesting to the kitchen table. It can be spread through infected water, food handlers, or other sources of contamination.
Q/ Salmonella is often found in poultry, beef, milk and eggs. Are vegetables equally vulnerable?
That’s hard to say. A lot depends on how they’re handled.  But you have to balance the risk with all the benefits to your health from fruit and vegetables.
Q/ What else can we do to avoid food poisoning?
There are some things you can control, and some you can’t. One thing you can control is what happens in your kitchen and on the barbecue grill. Cook your meat thoroughly. Don’t put fruit or vegetables next to raw poultry or meat. 

Here’s more on salmonella and the latest outbreak, from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
 

My colleague Chen May Yee (who sits next to me) has a jaw-dropper post on her blog, Cribsheet, about a placebo pill for kids that you can buy at your neighborhood drug store. Have a look.