Have any of ya'll noticed, as I have,that T. V. drug commercials never use the word "drug"? Invariably, it's "medicine". Just askin'.....

I've noticed that they quickly gloss over the information that their products may well kill us, so they want us to "ask [our] doctor if XFGPBYPT is right for [us]." Then they show an image of a couple getting ready to... uhh, couple. Since a picture's worth a thousand words, guess what we remember about the ad!

Back in the 1980s evening TV was brought to us by the female urogenital system. In the 1990s it was brought to us by the flaccid penis. How I miss the good old days when we could all use Alka Seltzer and Preparation H sans souci - unless we mixed them up.

I remember the day my father mixed up the Viagra and the Ex-lax. He didn't know if he was coming or going.

Good question, Duncan. I think it's because, at least in the U.S., the word "drug" has illegal implications.

I looked both of them up in Dictionary.com and found this for drug: "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being" and this for medicine: "any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness." Pretty similar, right?

However, there are other sites that seem to me to have a social bias against the word drug, which I don't think is correct. See this. I disagree that "drugs" are "habit-forming substances" or linked to stimulants, hallucinogens or narcotics, as that site says. They can be, but a drug can also be an innocent aspirin. I suppose, though, it's that take on the word as to why we don't see it used as often as medicine. Yet, at least in the U.S., we say "drug store," and not "medicine store."

On the same medical theme, I heard a TV evangelist relating the dangers of homosexuality. She claimed gays are subject to "severe cases of acme." At least it's the best.

quote:

She claimed gays are subject to "severe cases of acme." At least it's the best.

They have trapezoidally threaded screws?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezoidal_thread_forms Note that Acme threads can use split nuts.