Episode 95: Smollop: Henry Heimlich

Way to go, man! You ate the fuck out of that back fat!

–Gareth

So, yeah. In the wild lands of my youth (the 1970’s), kids rode in the back of pickup trucks, standing up in the back seats of cards, heaved lawn darts at each other, and played on scorching metal playground equipment. No overt safety features, no helmets when biking or skating.

And no one knew about choking, y’all.

It was a simpler time. We were either tougher as a species, or more foolhardy. Or both. Both is good.

Then came, well, let’s be honest here…a narcissist. Henry Heimlich saw some medical data on the “cafe coronary”, internally screeched, “That’s something I could slap my name on!” and he was off to the races.

Boy, howdy, was he off.

Red Cross Revises Tips for Helping Choking Victims–pretty neutral examination of the story and explanation of Red Cross’ stance, given new evidence; includes interview with Peter Heimlich and his wife, Karen Shulman

PBS: Warning: Chewing on This May Cause Choking

This PBS article has the Johnny Carson/Angie Dickinson photo. Heimlich is looking at them as if the demo is actually the beginning of a sexual threesome and he is waiting to be tapped in. Creepy.

He’s the L. Ron Hubbard of the esophagus. –Gareth

Kickstarter project for a documentary has been funded: The Maneuver: The Inside Story of Dr. Henry Heimlich

The New Republic: The Choke Artist

For what it’s worth: henryheimlich.com…and his newly published autobiography: Heimlich’s Maneuvers: My Seventy Years of Lifesaving Innovation

Peter Heimlich and Karen Shulman’s extensive work exposing Edward Patrick’s and Henry Heimlich’s work: medfraud.info. If you have any information to share, they have Anonymouse set up, so that you can communicate anonymously, should you wish–scroll down to the bottom of the front page for link and instructions.

And, yes, I wasn’t kidding: lawn darts.

One more delightful gem, the kind that makes me so happy: Henry Heimlich is Potsie’s uncle. It’s a small world, baby. (It’s all connected, I told you so. Maybe, instead of Kevin Bacon, it really all comes back to the Fonz. Think about it.)

Heimlich is Potsie's uncle. Hugging myself! @reynoldsgareth @daveanthony The new choking move should be the Fonz jukebox slap. @thedollop

— Carla Hufstedler (@carlahaunted) July 11, 2015

Bands from this episode:

• Hamfat
• Tommy Backslap
• Death Blows
• Action Park News
• FunWorld
• Zombie Rape

Cultural references from this episode:

• the Regal Beagle
• RonCo
• The Third Man