Strange...but true

Q.  Borrowing a secret from the rich and famous, how might you create your own good luck for success? A.  Life’s a sort of river of events, with some planned, many more just coming along by happenstance, says Max Gunther in “How To Get Lucky.”  To maximize your chances, you must stay in the thick of things, go to parties, join clubs, get on teams, talk to people. Networking is key, because good breaks come often through friends.  Check out the math:  If you know 300 people--an average number--and each of them knows 300 other people, you’re now friend-of-a-friend to 90,000 people, and friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend to 27 million!  (Even with overlaps, the number in practice is truly enormous.) That’s bigger than the biggest cities, and all within a couple of well-placed phone calls reaching out from you. Q.  How hot can spicy foods get?  Could eaters injure themselves in indulging their fiery hot tastes? A.  The “heat” is from the chemical capsaicin in the pepper, causing a sensation of pain--especially in the eyes when used in pepper spray--but doing no lasting damage, says Washington State University food research technologist Michael Costello.  Temporary reactions might include numbness, heavy sweating, intestinal cramps. Spicy heat is measured in “Scoville Units,” relating to the concentration of capsaicin in the food:  Most bell/sweet pepper varieties are in the 0-100 Units range; 2,500-5,000 Units includes jalapeno and mirasol peppers.  The habanero pepper has long been ranked as the hottest pepper, averaging 200,000-300,000 Units. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the “Red Savina” cultivar as the hottest of all cultivated habaneros at 577,000 Units, although aficionados rank the Francisca cultivar as even hotter.  “It just hasn’t been tested by Guinness yet.” Recently however, the Naga Jolokia pepper (capsicum frutescens) of India has been measured to be 50% hotter than the hottest habanero, says Costello.  As hot as it is, it is a staple in the northeastern region of India where it grows wild.  This is the hottest known pepper that one could eat, at about 1,000,000 Scoville Units.  “The theoretical limit would be 16,000,000, for pure, concentrated capsaicin.  Were you to do that, you wouldn’t die, however much you might wish it.”