Go Retire Psychiatrist

Svengoolie Movie: “The Mummy’s Tomb”

Svengoolie Intro: “Calling all stations! Clear the air lanes! Clear all air lanes for the big broadcast!”

I watched the Svengoolie movie “The Mummy’s Tomb the other night. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a mummy movie (unless you count the one in which Brendan Fraser appeared in 1999 and I didn’t pay much attention) and most of the hour-long film shared my TV screen with the local weather report, which happens sometimes. This time it was about the snowfall, which dumped 5 inches on Iowa City. We spent about a couple of hours clearing it the following day with the help of Sena’s favorite tool, the cordless electric snow shovel and me with the brand new 48’ snow pusher plow.

Anyway, “The Mummy’s Tomb” is a relatively short movie made in 1942 and starred Lon Chaney as Kharis the mummy. He had no lines because he had to keep mum, evidently. There was plenty of stock footage from “The Mummy’s Hand,” released in 1940. Just so you know, I’m aware of the 1932 film “The Mummy” with Boris Karloff as the mummy, but I’m not planning to watch it unless, of course, it appears on the Svengoolie show.

There’s this character named Babe in “The Mummy’s Tomb” who evidently was also in “The Mummy’s Hand” and the two had different last names and the 1942 version of Babe was more serious.

This movie is a sequel to “The Mummy’s Hand” and they killed off Kharis in that one but resurrected him in “The Mummy’s Tomb” although didn’t give the monster new bandages. Kharis limps around and never uses his right arm early in the show yet is nimble enough to carry Isobel Evans (Elyse Knox) in his right arm while climbing a flower trellis. This is the first clue that Kharis had a personal trainer and despite being thousands of years old, he perked right up after only one bottle of Nugenix Total-T thanks to Frank Thomas and Doug Flutie.

Hey, remember Flutie’s historic last second 64-yard Hail Mary pass to Gerard Phelan in the end zone in the 1984 Boston College vs Miami game? It’s not mummified ancient history, but it’s more fun to watch than this movie!

Where was I? Oh yeah, it was difficult to tell if Isobel fully appreciated this because she fainted as soon as she saw Kharis and remained pretty much unconscious the whole time Kharis was carrying her around (so much for Frank’s “she’ll like it too” promise).

The funny thing is Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) doesn’t get this because he develops a huge crush on Isobel and orders Kharis to fetch her for him. This happens more than halfway through the film but until then, Mehemet’s main goal was to get revenge on the guys who were responsible for “killing” Kharis the first time around. Mehemet has the power to control Kharis, yet pulls a gun on John Banning (John Hubbard) who is the son of Prof. Stepen Banning who started the whole business of desecrating the tomb of Kharis and can by god whip John any day of the week in a game of checkers.

This turns out to be a wrong move because the sheriff just shoots Mehemet, and that’s the end of the boss of Kharis.

The smartest person in the movie is Professor Norman (Frank Reicher) who figures out what the substance is on the throats of Kharis’s victims (myrrh, cedar oil, Nugenix-Total T) proving that these items were used in the embalming process of mummies, thus proving that even scientists can be guilty of fraud.

So, there you have it. Towards the end of the movie, Kharis learns how to play checkers and whips the pants off John Banning. So there, only one spoiler in this review of a movie which I would give a 2/5 shrilling chicken rating.

Pearl Harbor Day Today

Today is Pearl Harbor Day and it reminds me of the time we made a trip to Hawaii in 1997 and visited the USS Arizona Memorial. There was a guy named Norm in our tour group and he and his wife Lee (Leota) made friends with me and Sena. They were in their seventies at the time. Norm wept openly when we stood inside the memorial and viewed the names of those killed in the attack. I don’t think he served in WWII. He would have been only 16 years old at the time. I think he was just very affected by the loss of so many lives. Standing in the place where so many died can make us want to cry. You could call it normal—and it is sad. We exchanged Christmas cards with Norm and Lee for years afterward until they passed.

Big Mo Pod Show: “California Bluesin”

Well, I listened to the Big Mod Pod Show today and I have a couple of thoughts. Big Mod mentioned something about some kind of an AI assistant maybe selecting some records on the KCCK Facebook site. He didn’t sound all that pleased with the choices the AI makes, specifically with the John Lee Hooker tune, “Mr. Lucky.”

Big Mo Pod Show 085 – “California Bluesin”

I may have the wrong understanding about the “AI guy blues buddy” on the Big Mo Facebook page but if it’s the AI guy like CoPilot or Gemini, then it would be great if you could deactivate it somehow. I know I get pretty annoyed with AI when I search the web (not always, but sometimes it’s annoying).

I just happen to have the 1995 CD called “The Very Best of John Lee Hooker.” Far be it from me to be the judge of what’s the best for any blues artist, but I think the CD is pretty good, though I haven’t listened to it in a while. The other thing I have to admit is that I’ve found differences of opinion on is whether “Hobo Blues” is a 12-bar blues type number or not.

If Big Mo says he can’t understand why Hooker would confine himself to a constraining 12-bar blues song, then I’ll have to agree with him.

Then, of course, I ran into something else I don’t know about and that’s something called “trance blues.” Supposedly, John Lee Hooker did trance blues. How I find out about things I don’t know anything about is to peck around the internet and I found this link that defines it as something that has “a strong electronic component.”

I don’t know about “electronic” and I noticed some authors describe trance blues as “repetitive and hypnotic.” Does that mean that 12-bar blues is not trance blues?

So, here’s the thing. I’ve got my own pesky AI assistant Gemini that I never ask for any advice from, but it never misses a chance to make a point about some query I have for the internet—like trance blues.

Gemini says Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” is an example of trance blues and also mentions that “Hobo Blues” is another example of it.

I don’t know if I can get this straight. Is 12-bar blues an example of a chord progression pattern and is trance blues a genre of blues which has a repetitive, hypnotic rhythm? It’s over my head.

Sena Buys Me a Bigger Snow Plow Shovel!

Sena bought me a bigger snow plow shovel because we’re getting a fair amount of snow lately. I’ll try it out tomorrow because we’ll be getting a couple of inches or so starting tonight.

The new snow plow shovel is 48 inches wide. The one she got last year was 36 inches wide. We have 6-foot-wide sidewalks (really a trail) and with the driveway, it’s kind of a chore.

I never checked out the maker’s website until today. The About Us section indicates they are based in Iowa, starting in 1996. The company name is JM Enterprises, hence the website name jmenterprisesdotcom. All the materials are made in the U.S.A. but I couldn’t see what city they’re based in. Another interesting thing about the website is that they have a link to The Farmer’s Almanac, which I clicked on and from there found out that there are two versions of The Farmer’s Almanac—I guess.

The one called just The Farmer’s Almanac is going to stop publishing soon. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is not going to stop publishing.

It makes me wonder if the Snow Plow company will switch to displaying a link to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

The other nice thing about the web site is the Shovel Safety page. Bob Vila recommends their snow pushers. The guidance for snow removal using both snow pushers and scoop shovels sounds like solid common sense. It’s another feather in Iowa’s cap.

Men in Black 5 a Thing Now?

I just saw something on the web which look like Men in Black 5 could be for real. Supposedly, maybe, I dunno—but I hope so.

It may be more than a rumor, but there are doubts about whether Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will reprise their roles as Agents K & J respectively. Sony Pictures may or may not be confirming this depending on what article you read. Maybe somebody is drafting a script but I’m not sure.

I can’t confirm whether Frank the talking pug will be in it, but I doubt it because I think he passed away. Agent K will get around pretty well in a plutonium powered mobility scooter and Agent J will take Serutan (remember, that’s Natures spelled backward!) just before pressing the little red button.

Serleena will not stick her 3-foot-long green tongue into Agent K’s ear. I can never stand to watch that part.

Yours truly might be involved—but I really can’t say at this time because I’m still negotiating my contract.

Thank you for your time.

Tall Burger, Sena Style

Sena made tall burgers for lunch today. Now, I know you have to be careful what you call a tall burger when it comes to questions about how tall is tall. What do you mean by “tall”?

We’ve all seen pictures on the web of tall burgers that are 4 feet and better in height and what have you. I’m not talking about the extremes which make it big on the internet but which nobody can realistically eat without a hook and ladder.

Sena’s tall burgers are tall but not crazy tall. We have different approaches for how to eat them. Sena always just picks her burger up and takes a big bite out of crime, often ending up with much of it on her face (mayo mustache, lettuce eyebrows, mustard chin, etc.).

On the other hand, I’m a knife and fork guy and always attack it like a salad—which she laughs at.

You have to consider your plan of attack on a tall burger. It’s like two wrestlers, the burger and the eater. They have to size each other up, circle each other, lunge, feint, head fake this way or that—then just go for the takedown.

Sena would get a step over toe hold and be done eating before I’ve even raised my knife and fork after figuring out that with all that sauce on my fingers, I probably can’t hold on long enough to get it to my mouth.

It reminds me of a quote from Men in Black 3 (what doesn’t remind me of things like that?). Background is that Andy Warhol in 1969 is actually Agent W, one of the men in black under cover and he’s talking with young Agent K:

Off camera, woman says to Andy Warhol (really Agent W): Andy, Yoko’s here to see you!

Agent W: [under his breath] Oh, Yoko!

Agent W speaking as Andy Warhol: Tell her I’m filming this man eating a hamburger, it’s… transcendent. Okay, now the pickle!

Watching Sena eating a tall burger is transcendent.

Svengoolie Movie List for December 2025 and a Quiz Question!

This is partly just an announcement of the Svengoolie show movie lineup for the month of December.

But more importantly, there’s a quiz question to see if you can name the movie the shrilling chicken’s question “What the heck is it, Edgar?” comes from in the featured image above.

There are no real prizes for coming up with the right answer. You’ll just have to use your imagination here. According to the picture below, if you get it right you can imagine getting the first place prize, which is a shrilling chicken.

You can imagine getting the 2nd place prize if you name something other than the right answer which is only partially correct (for example, naming something that has the name “Edgar” in it but is otherwise wrong). The 2nd place prize is a picture of a vintage calculator I used to have which could work for a very long time on a couple of AA batteries (over a decade!). I bought this old Sharp ELSI MATE EL-505 back around 1980 when I went to college at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. You can find them on eBay if you really want to do more than just imagine getting a prize. When we bought the new calculator, I think I threw the old one out, probably because it didn’t work even after replacing the batteries.

You can imagine getting the 3^rd place prize if you can’t make a guess at all. This is something that is still being sold by certain auto parts stores, like AutoZone ($5). It’s a wire spark plug gap gauge and adjustment tool. I used it a long time ago. I couldn’t find it in my toolbox but there’s a short video showing how to use it.

While I was out looking for the wire spark plug gauge tool, I found what I think was another type of tool called a feeler gauge. You can use it to measure spark plug gaps and other kinds of clearances. It’s got some rust on it so you could imagine cleaning it up a little but it’s not a prize level item.

Answer to the quiz question (don’t peek if you’re not done reading the post!): It’s from the movie Men in Black (1997). Beatrice asks her husband Edgar “What the heck is it, Edgar?” when he goes out to investigate a loud explosion caused by a spaceship crash landing in their yard.

So, Is This Anything?

We used to watch David Letterman a long time ago and he had this sketch called “Is this Anything?” I can’t remember any specific example but I thought I recognized a YouTube of one segment that was originally aired years ago.

I was reminded of the “Is This Anything” sketch when Sena showed me this video of a thing called a Bionic Neck and Shoulder Massager. It looks like something out of a Svengoolie movie; a headless set of fingers. People strap it to their necks and then look like they’re being strangled by an extraterrestrial.

I thought I saw red marks on the person’s skin when the device was removed. I’m sure some people swear by their effectiveness for relaxing tight neck muscles. On the other hand, they look creepy to me.

It reminded me of a foot massager we got 3 years ago. You stuck your feet in it and it massaged your feet. It was kind of creepy.

Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome in the News Lately

I’ve seen a few articles about Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) and because my funny bone is sensitive to provocative titles, I first read the one with the title that starts off with “I still partly think this is bullshit…” My reference list resulting from a quick search is below.

Of course, I don’t think CHS is “bullshit” (quote from an emergency room patient in the Collins et al paper). I agree it’s hard to diagnose and the news media tends to sensationalize it by promoting popular terminology like “scromiting,” which my spell checker doesn’t recognize. This is a vogue portmanteau word combining screaming and vomiting. It makes me wonder why someone didn’t try harder to come up with a portmanteau that might be more descriptive of the complex triad of vomiting, belly aches, hot baths, and screaming. Why not barfinbawlinbellyachinbathingbadness?

But it’s not funny and attempts to attach funny words like scromiting to the condition by the press (or whoever) is misguided.

I found one systematic review and treatment algorithm (Hsu et al) written to guide consultation-liaison psychiatrists who are likely to get called when CHS patients are admitted to emergency departments. However, I think the place to start would be the StatPearls review by Cue et al. One thing I found out from that paper is that the interesting ACCENT study ((Achieving Cannabis Cessation: Evaluating N-Acetylcysteine Treatment) the authors cite does not yet have results available, although it was started way back in 2014.

Just a couple of comments about the treatment algorithm by Hsu et al: haloperidol can cause dystonic reactions and akathisia as well as cardiac conduction problems like QTc prolongation and more. One episode of neck dystonia or akathisia or both can lead to mistrust of physicians who administer the causative agents, especially if there were no explanations of side effects as well as potential benefits. Benzodiazepines, while they may work, may also lead to some patients with substance use disorders becoming attached to them. Less commonly, patients with somatoform, factitious, or eating disorders will complicate the diagnostic picture.

Reference List:

Alexandra B. Collins, Francesca L. Beaudoin, Jane Metrik, Rachel S. Wightman,

“I still partly think this is bullshit”: A qualitative analysis of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome perceptions among people with chronic cannabis use and cyclic vomiting,

Drug and Alcohol Dependence,

Volume 246,

2023,

109853,

ISSN 0376-8716,

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871623000911)

Abstract: Background

Cannabis is the most widely used psychoactive substance in the United States (US), with reported use patterns increasing among adults in recent years. Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) has been one concern related to increased cannabis use patterns. US emergency departments have reported an increase of CHS cases over the last decade, yet little is known about CHS. This study explores the experiences of people with chronic cannabis use and cyclic vomiting and their perceptions of CHS.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 people recruited from a prospective cohort of patients presenting to Rhode Island emergency departments with symptomatic cyclic vomiting and chronic cannabis use. Data were analyzed thematically using NVivo.

Findings

Participants characterized their cyclic vomiting as related to food and alcohol consumption patterns, stress, and existing gastrointestinal issues. Despite recurrent episodes of cyclic vomiting, nausea, and abdominal pain, many participants remained uncertain whether their symptoms were driven by cannabis. Many participants relied on at-home research to assess their symptoms and seek out management approaches. Clinical treatment recommendations focused on cannabis cessation. However, most participants felt clinical recommendations failed to consider the complexity and challenge of stopping cannabis use given the chronicity of use and therapeutic benefits some perceived cannabis to have.

Conclusions

Although cannabis cessation is the only reported CHS cure to date, additional clinical and non-clinical treatment approaches are needed to better support people with chronic cannabis use and cyclic vomiting to meet their ongoing needs.

Keywords: Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome; Cyclic vomiting; Cannabis use; Qualitative

Cue L, Chu F, Cascella M. Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome. [Updated 2023 Jul 3]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549915/

Jennifer Hsu, Saurabh Kashyap, Cheryl Hurd, Lauren McCormack, Zachary Herrmann, Ann C. Schwartz, Joshua Jackson, Dustin DeMoss,

Treatment of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome: A systematic review and treatment algorithm for consultation-liaison psychiatrists,

General Hospital Psychiatry,

Volume 97,

2025,

Pages 185-191,

ISSN 0163-8343,

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163834325002038)

Abstract: Background

Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) is a cyclical vomiting syndrome associated with chronic cannabis use and is often resistant to anti-emetics. Despite increasing incidence of suspected CHS, literature regarding its treatment is limited, and there are no established treatment guidelines.

Objectives

With the goal of establishing treatment guidelines for consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists managing CHS, the authors systematically reviewed existing literature for pharmacologic treatment strategies using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. With the results of the review, the authors propose a treatment algorithm for CHS.

Methods

We searched PubMed, PyschINFO & PsychARTICLES, Embase, and Web of Science from inception to July 2021 to identify literature describing treatment of CHS. We included cases of CHS where patient-level data describing the treatment of CHS was available. Pharmacologic treatments were considered beneficial if the patient’s nausea, hyperemesis, and urge to take hot showers resolved. Non-independent review of exclusion criteria assisted in reducing individual bias of the literature.

Results

The authors identified 34 eligible articles, consisting of 63 individual cases. Among these articles and cases, capsaicin cream, antipsychotics, and benzodiazepines were reported to improve CHS more effectively than other, more frequently used anti-emetics, such as promethazine, ondansetron, and metoclopramide.

Conclusion

An examination of treatment strategies for CHS can allow for more effective care while providing a foundation for further research in treatment. This proposed algorithm is designed to aid in establishing treatment strategies for C-L psychiatrists who assist with managing CHS for patients in general medical settings. The goal of this research is to establish evidence-based treatment guidelines for C-L psychiatrists who are managing patients with CHS in general medical settings. Recognizing the limitations of this algorithm being based on case reports adds to the necessity of further research in this area.

Registration

PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42021254888) registration number CRD42021254888.

Keywords: Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome; Treatment strategies; Systematic review; Pharmacologic treatment

Loganathan, P.; Gajendran, M.; Goyal, H. A Comprehensive Review and Update on Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome. Pharmaceuticals 2024, 17, 1549. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17111549

Starlings and More!

Sena got a video of a large flock of birds flying around in the outlot beyond our backyard. We thought they were all starlings, but I couldn’t focus enough on individual birds to tell for sure if there were other species mixed in with them. I couldn’t even confidently identify a starling although I’m pretty sure that’s what many of them were.

I think it’s not unusual for other small nondescript blackbirds to mingle with starlings. While we can’t make a case for the smallish flock being a murmuration, there was an impressive number of them. Trying to identify specific species by repeated attempts to focus and magnify using video editing software mostly led to my murmuring under my breath—mainly curses.

Starlings are often called pests and web sources say they are among several species of birds that spread disease. The Iowa State University Extension calls them “nuisance birds.”

My usual resource, Birds of Iowa Field Guide (2023 edition) by Stan Tekiela is a little more generous in the description of the European Starling, calling it a songbird which can mimic the songs of up to 20 species and can even imitate the sound of the human voice. Other web resources compare them to mockingbirds. Large flocks of starlings commonly mix with other blackbirds in the fall. Starlings were introduced to New York City in 1890-91 from Europe.

See if you can pick out the starlings in our video and other birds. I got mostly eyestrain from the effort.