ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's On Your Mind?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: Every time I chew a piece of mint-flavored gum or eat a mint, I feel hungry. What is it about eating spearmint or peppermint that causes this? It gives a whole new meaning to the term "after-dinner mint." M.T., Roanoke
A: There are two possibilities here. Appetites can be triggered by sugar in gum and candy, or else your reaction to mint is personal.
The Herb Growing and Marketing Network at Silver Spring, Pa., said it never heard anyone call mint an appetite stimulant.
Peppermint is widely used in toothpaste, and if it made people hungry, the industry probably would change to something else. That's the opinion of Maureen Rogers at the herb network.
Herbal teas used in some weight-loss programs have peppermint and spearmint "as flavoring agents to cover the horrible taste of the herbs that help you lose weight," Rogers said.
No frostbite
Q: What will the period of warm weather that preceded this freeze do to nature's timetable? Can early spring blossoms and flower bulbs that started to emerge recover and go back into dormancy? H.D., Roanoke
A: That burst of spring during the Christmas holidays could mean we won't see as much bright-yellow forsythia this spring.
John Arbogast, agricultural and natural resources extension agent for Roanoke, said some woody landscaping shrubs reacted to the warm weather. It may have affected some azaleas, as well as forsythias.
The damage, if any, won't be fatal, Arbogast said. It'll be a one-year impact.
If tender new shoots look brown in March, scratch the bark to look for green tissue. If the shoots are brown all the way through, prune them.
Flowering bulbs probably will bloom as usual, Arbogast said, because the bulb is protected in soil.
Arbogast said fruit trees apparently were not affected.
Professionally lax
Q: Is there such a thing as a professional homeless person?
D.M., Roanoke
A: There was a time when only doctors, lawyers and maybe engineers were called professional people because of their high level of education, skill and fees.
Our standard isn't so strict anymore, but in most circles, "professional" still is associated with the words "work" and "income."
Professionalism is an evolving standard. When baseball players and other athletes started receiving high pay for their skills, the term "professional" was extended to them.
Gradually, "professional" was used to describe other walks of life that required less education, skill and pay - professional journalists, for example.
Before we knew it, the standards once attached to the word "professional" had slipped pretty far.
There were all sorts of pros: Professional gamblers, professional beer-tasters, professional mattress testers, professional consultants.
But professional homeless person? We think not yet.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RayR@Roanoke.Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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