Time Not to Smoke

Researchers at Penn State University tested two groups - 22 non-smokers and 20 smokers. After a 45-second period of time all were asked to estimate how long had elapsed. There was a little difference between the two groups and everyone was within 5 seconds of being right. However, when the smokers were tested again - this time following a day without smoking cigarettes - they overestimated the elapsed time by an average of 50%. Some people actually thought that three minutes, not 45 seconds, had passed. Is an effect of smoking to kill time ? Does time drag without a drag ? Here's one way, perhaps, of helping to make time stand still. An alternative is to regard lighting up as a way of lightening life and causing time go like lightning !

Recipes To Fit

If you cannot decide what to cook, but have a stock cupboard full of products, help is at hand. Log onto the Recipes section via the links next to this column, enter the ingredients at your disposal into the on-line search facility and the ways and means of producing a delicious dish will soon be on your screen.

What a Loss

The recent death of Debbie Barham, aged 26, has robbed us of a wit whose remarks were set to rival those of Dorothy Parker. On hearing news of Alex Comfort's death, she wrote, The author of The Joy of Sex has died. He's now writing a posthumous chapter on how to remain permanently stiff.