If I'd had placebo pills available when I was a child, I probably wouldn't have faked being sick so much just to get a spoonful of Dimetapp.

I was ridiculously addicted to the flavor of Dimetapp. I don't know why. Yes, the obsession is now past.

I'm not sure, though, that you need a brand-name pill; all you really need is some of those custom-M&Ms with no Ms on them, and all you have to do is convince the kid that "strengthening medicine" (what we really called them in my family) is not a joke but the real straight-up truth.

mac is much more risk adverse than most of his friends - Terrified of falling down and scrapes. Only recently is he learning that he will survive the bruises and cuts. He had a faceplant on the padded playground surface after his hand slipped on the monkey bars and damn it looked scary and his lip bled, but only for like 1 min.

If you regularly give a child placebos, at some point the child will learn the truth. I wonder if this disappointment would be like losing faith in Santa and the Easter Bunny....

Maybe they should all be tied together, and children should be told their placebos have been blessed by Santa and the Easter Bunny.

Of course, with young kids it's mama's kiss that's a placebo ("Kiss it and make it better").

I've been in many a supposedly haunted theatre.

Aurelia, have you been in the alley behind the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (aka the Oriental)? It's where so many people tried to escape the Iroquois Theater fire 100 years ago, only to find that the fire door was an exit without a ladder, so they ended up jumping to their deaths. It's suuposed to be one of the most haunted locations in the city.

I know that Oprah is convinced that her studio is haunted--it's the old Armory Building where the dead from both the Iroquois and the Eastland disasters were taken.

and see, we don't do Santa or the Easter Bunny either.

Once when I was wee, I tried to eat half a bottle of childrens' vitamins because I scraped my knee. Because whenever else I was sick and hurt, I took medicine, right? (long history of ear infections, so antibiotics + childrens aspirin.)

Thankfully, they caught me before I'd made too much of a dent. And FREAKED OUT.

I'm not sure it parallels the placebo discussion exactly ( I was administering the placebo, not the parents) but ... I think it is possibly not so good an idea to encourage. Hey, the kid might notice when it doesn't fucking work!

I just watched that spire intro again. The sun seems to be setting awfully far north.

Aurelia, have you been in the alley behind the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (aka the Oriental)?

Yep. That's the direct path from the Goodman to the red line. That's also where crowds gather to greet the actors from Wicked after a show. The city really cleaned up that alley a couple of years ago. I see the Haunted Chicago bus tours there all the time.

I know that Oprah is convinced that her studio is haunted--it's the old Armory Building where the dead from both the Iroquois and the Eastland disasters were taken.

I'll have to ask the people I know at Harpo about that.

Actually, IIRC, placebos have a pretty good success rate. I swear I was just reading about this somewhere. And the author was basically saying that's how homeopathic remedies work.

It is possible that I am way too excited about a possible source for like 80% off pokemon card packs.