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Weekend


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April 13, 2001

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES AND RICH SONES, PH.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Thick and slimy, this underappreciated goo-stuff contains water and salts galore, while coming in green, yellow or colorless varieties. As lubricant, it coats, soothes, protects, contains antiseptic enzymes and immunoglobins, blankets the airways up the nose and down into the lungs, snags smoke particles from the air, and prevents the stomach from digesting itself in its own juices. Liquid or gel, nobody loves it, everybody wipes it, some pick at it, others deplore it. Can you spell its name?

    A. Make that “mucus,” not the oft-mistaken “mucous,” which means containing or composed of mucus, as described by the “Go Ask Alice” Columbia University Web site and “The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids” by Paul Spinrad.


     
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