Readily-Whipped

Don't get me wrong, I love sealing my puckered lips around the perforated plastic nipple of a Redi-Whip can and suckling down the sweet, sweet happy gas as much as the next guy, but this story on today's AP wires struck me as either hilarious or deeply upsetting, I haven't quite yet decided:

Police: eating disorder expert collapses after taking 'whippits'

July 12, 2005

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. --An expert in eating disorders collapsed in a supermarket after inhaling propellant from whipped cream cans, according to police.

Lisa G. Berzins, a prominent psychologist who has been on national television and radio shows and in newspaper articles, was arrested on a warrant Friday charging her in the May 29 incident, The Hartford Courant reported.

Berzins, 49, of Farmington, has a practice in West Hartford. She has written and lectured on eating disorders, female development, sex roles and self-esteem, according a speaker's biography from the American Psychological Association.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, West Hartford police responded to the Farmington Avenue Stop & Shop and found Berzins lying on the floor and bleeding from her head. Berzins, the affidavit says, told police she did not know what happened.

Police interviewed witnesses and collected evidence, then determined that Berzins apparently inhaled from three cans of whipped cream containing nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas, the affidavit says.

Now I wouldn't be doing my journoblogolistic duty if I didn't do some legwork, and what I have found is that Ms. Berzins is no Sally Jesse Raphael yapping head living in a van by the river.  She is a respected PhD and indeed an expert in her field. The following is an exerpt from a speech she recently gave to Congress about female body image, the full text of which can be found here:

Okay, I've decided it's deeply upsetting.

The obvious question to ask is: how can someone with this much insight into the struggles young women go through to become accepted and respected by society could end up passed out in a supermarket, head bleeding and surrounded by depleted Redi-Whip cans. Clearly, a life's output of responsible, important work is now at great risk of going up in one great collective puff of laughing gas. Think twice.