Word: coppered
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...staffed and overcrowded. Some roads ripped up to slow Nigerian armored cars have not been repaired. Ex-soldiers, known as "vacuum cleaners" because they are so thorough, roam the region stealing from villagers. In Enugu, a businessman explained why he could never reach Lagos by telephone: "Thieves steal the copper telephone lines, melt them down and sell the ingots in Lagos, where they are made into telephone lines...
They changed their tune when reports of gold filtered south from Nome and Fairbanks at the turn of the century. Some prospectors came with a pack and left with a bundle. The 1916 copper rush in Cordova was equally ruthless. The mines closed 20 years later, depleted. Only the fish?salmon, herring and halibut?kept the local economy going...
...this belief in the efficacy of a strip of copper? No users can really explain their faith, though they all talk vaguely about body electricity, excess acids and even outright magic. But the most common (and completely unfounded) belief-held since the time of the ancient Romans-is that arthritis sufferers lack sufficient copper in their systems; thus users of the bracelets are somehow supposed to compensate for the deficiency. Golfer Bert Yancey credits his copper bracelet with easing an aching elbow in time for him to win the $25,000 Bing Crosby Open at Pebble Beach last January. Hollywood...
Quackery Racket. Medical authorities generally are hostile. The Arthritis Foundation considers promotion of copper bracelets as an arthritis cure "part of the arthritis quackery racket that annually grosses upward of $400 million a year in the U.S." Los Angeles Orthopedic Expert Dr. Robert Kerlan is an outspoken opponent of the bracelet boom. "It's asinine, ridiculous and of no value whatsoever," he says, and warns that the bracelet may actually be harmful "in that it keeps a wearer from getting proper diagnosis." He admits only that "it might be a good thing for the dermatologists, though-all those wrists...
Part of the Juju. The latest version of the copper bracelet fad began in Britain during the early '60s and quickly spread to the Continent. In both London and Paris, the green-stained wrist has become a mark of distinction. Among the wearers are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Lord Snowdon, the Marquess of Bath (who thoughtfully sells the bracelets to sightseers at a souvenir stand outside his castle), Pierre Cardin, Coco Chanel and Stavros Niarchos. Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, the eminent historian, has been wearing his bracelet for three or four years and says its effects...