A: Dear Aficionado,

Yes, most medical institutions do have some sort of color coding system for the various employees that work there. However, much like police departments around the country, the color coding system can differ between each medical hospital, clinic, etc.

It has been a very recent change, however. Traditionally, only doctors wore scrubs, nurses wore white, volunteers wore pink jackets, and housekeeping wore more nonmedical looking clothes. In the last few years, however, those medical types have really broken loose and busted out a wide array of designs and colors on their scrubs: micky mouse prints, stripes, holiday attire, etc. Oooo--wild!!

The one problem is that, now that everyone is wearing scrubs, no one can tell who is trained to do what unless one is familiar with the staff or that hospital's coding system.

For example, at one ER, the doctors wore green, the nurses had every pattern imaginable on their scrubs, and housekeeping wore dark blue scrubs with white trim (looked like pajamas). At other hospitals, surgeons wear blue, doctors wear green and/or white lab coats, nurses wear pink (the classic ER television show has this usually).

So, basically, there is no concrete answer to your question because gone are the days of doctors in scrubs, nurses in white hats and skirts, and volunteers in pink polyester jackets (oh wait . . . volunteers do still wear those ancient things. Trust me, I know).

-CAPCOM

A: Dear Aficionado--

Scrubs colors are just like karate belts. If you see a guy in black scrubs, run. Okay, that's not true. According to my source in medical school, scrub colors just depend "on where you work on what they buy." Some hospitals may have color schemes, but they are apparently not universal across the profession.

-Dr. Answer

A: Dear Taxed,

The law of tithing is fairly straightforward. The D&C states that "all those who have been tithed shall pay one tenth of their interest annually." Or something very similar to that. You can look it up yourself. At any rate, if you ask a church authority, that's what they'll tell you, with the clarification that interest means income. They then leave it to you to decide what's your income. Do you see scholarships as the University giving you $1,530, which you then give back to them? Or do you see it as a tuition waiver, that the money required for tuition never passed through your hands, and therefore does not constitute any income? When you receive a $250 paycheck, where $50 have already been taken out in taxes, do you treat it as a $300 dollar increase, $50 of which went to the government, or as a $250 increase, since you never got your hands on the other $50 and couldn't have chosen to not give it to the government even if you'd wanted to? Do you see government support as income? The decision is yours.

-Othello

A: Dear Desperate 4 Tuition,

Of all the questions I have been asked thus far, I think this one tops the "wierd" list. You must *really* need some money. However, I am a dedicated writer so I did some research on the subject.

If you are looking to buy hair, Diane's Wig Shop in Orem carries wigs made from
real human hair, along with synthetic wigs. They do not collect the hair themselves, however. They told me you can not sell your hair locally, but you can donate it if you want to. "Locks of Love" is a nonprofit organization that collects hair for children that can not grow their own due to medical problems. You must have at least six inches of hair in order to donate. They can be reached at 794-1054. I also called Creative Wigs and Toupees in Sandy and Hite Hair Studio for Women in Salt Lake City, but they gave me the same answer: Nobody buys hair in SLC either,
but same as locally, you can donate it to one of the cancer societies if you want to.

-Knut the Great

A: Dear Desparate,

If things are as bad as you make them sound, have you considered donating plasma? There are several places locally that will pay decent dollars for your blood.

Othello

A: Dear Expecting,

It's a good thing you asked this question now, because learning how to count will be a very valuable skill you can employ for the rest of your life. You'd be amazed at how many professions require basic counting skills in one form or another. To answer your question simply, no, conclusion at the end of nine months does not mean a ten month pregnancy, in means a nine month pregancy. Let's look a little deeper into the subject and see why.

Suppose your child is born Jan. 1st. I know this may make him premature, but we'll assume that everything works out fine. On Feb. 1st someone asks you, "How many years old is your child?" demanding an answer in years. Would you agree that your child is 1/12th of a year old? But let's say they demand a whole number, no fractions allowed, and furthermore, you may never say your child is older than he is. You must say that he is 0 years old. Let's say they ask you again of Dec. 31 of 2002. You?d like to say that your child is a year old, but you can't, because that doesn't happen until tomorrow. You can't say that he is 364/365ths of a year old because no fractions are allowed. You must say that he is 0 years old still. But the next day 1 full concludes. You may now say your child is one year old. So you see that your child is not year old at the beginning of the first year but at the end, and this does not make him two years old. It is the same way with physical objects. You have two apples only when you have two complete apples in front of you, not when you have one apple and the start of another. You have $2 when you have 200 cents, not 101 cents.

And so you see (I hope) that a pregnancy concluding at the end of nine months has been nine months long. If this concept is still not within your reach, Math 097 might be able to help you.

-Othello

A: Dear Father-to-be,

I think I know where the confusion is coming from. Doctor's say that pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. At four weeks per month, that's ten months, plain and simple. So what's up with everyone saying nine months, you ask? Let's look at things a little more closely.

The forty weeks are from the woman's last period to birth. A doctor can't pinpoint a precise date of conception, but the end of the last period is the earliest possible day, so they go with that. But the last day of period probably really isn't the day of conception, especially since ovulation comes two weeks into the menstrual cycle. It's much more probable that conception occurs then. This makes for a 38 week pregnancy, which is 9.5 months at four weeks per month. But months do not have four weeks in them, they have more, with the exception of February. Do the math, with 365.25 days in a year, 7 days in a week, and twelve months in a year, you will find that an average month contains 4.35 weeks. This makes the 40 week pregnancy 9.2 months long, and the 38 week pregnancy 8.7 months long. So it looks like nine months is the length of the average pregnancy, just as you've always heard.

πr²