Originally Posted by SMI Sontegra  You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard this over the years. I’m introduced to someone and they ask me what I do, and I tell them I sell tanning beds and they say “Those are cancer machines”. It happened just tonight, although the person at least was kind enough to pose her insult in the form of a question: "Tanning beds? Don't they cause cancer?"
I worked for Pepsi 25 years ago, which also owned Frito-Lay and Pizza Hut. Nobody I ever met back then said: “You sell colored sugar water and are killing diabetics” or “You sell fatty foods and are causing heart attacks and strokes”. So what makes a complete stranger think it is appropriate to make that comment to me on cancer machines? Is it ignorance, or brainwashing, or passive-aggressive behavior? Regardless, it makes my blood boil.
In the early days, I would respond to this stupid comment with a somewhat defensive “everything in moderation” argument.
After a few years of getting fed-up, I switched to a more sarcastic approach:
Ignorant stranger: “Oh, you sell cancer machines”!
Me: “Really? When did Hoboken Junior High start issuing medical degrees”?
Over the past couple of years, as the good news about UV and Vitamin D has become (more and more) well-documented, I’ve gone back to a more educational approach (well, maybe with a little sarcasm thrown in): “Cancer machines? Why would you say such a stupid thing? Haven’t you followed Professor Giovannucci’s work at Harvard on the importance of UV-B for Vitamin D synthesis? Don’t you know that the lack of Vitamin D is associated with multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, and several types of cancer, including cancers of the colon, breast, prostate, and stomach? What would you prefer, to risk getting a little spot on your ear that even a dermatologist can remove with a little squirt of liquid nitrogen, or to have your breasts removed because of breast cancer, or defecate into a baggie coming out of your abdomen because your colon was destroyed by cancer ?”
Now that’s a pretty good answer and I'm happy with it, but it's a little long-winded. So from now on, I'm going with an answer that's short, sweet, and true:
Idiot: “You sell cancer machines”?!
Me: “YES, I do! Cancer PREVENTION machines! |