In The News This Week … Oct. 25–30, 2004: Operation Update!

There was a light item in recent news that will interest nostalgia buffs, board game fans, and parents wanting to have their children practice for a future career in surgery: According to a recent press release the game, Operation, has been updated!

For decades, children (and, in the 1970s, tipsy friends and relatives at my mother's New Year's parties) have been performing surgery on poor "Cavity Sam," removing ailments and malfunctioning parts, such as his "funny bone" and "broken heart," while trying to avoid adverse effects (i.e., the buzzer going off and scaring the pants off you).

Seeking to update the game in preparation for poor Cavity Sam's 39th birthday, the game's producers, Hasbro, Inc., allowed people to vote on three more possible ailments for the most-operated-on person in history. The options were Brain Freeze, Growling Stomach, and Tennis Elbow.

The winner? Brain Freeze, with 54% of votes, followed by Growling Stomach at 27%, and finally Tennis Elbow at 19%.

What is Brain Freeze? The object that your budding surgeon must remove gives you a hint: It's a tiny plastic ice cream cone! (If you want to learn about the ice cream/Brain Freeze phenomenon yourself, check out the British Medical Journal, and if you want to explain it to your kids, see Kidshealth.org.)

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