While many of these apps are from trusted, legitimate organizations such as the American Medical Association or small, nimble health start-ups focused on driving innovation, there are what may seem like
snake oil salesmen among them.
The Ballad of
Snake Oil Sam captivates an audience of young and old alike, transporting you into the Wild Wild West with the inspiring mystical story of a desert traveler, inventor, alchemist and magical elixir salesman in pursuit of redemption.
We can continue to buy the
snake oil, potions, ointments, and elixirs hoping for the quick cure, or we can deal with the real ailment.
That of the father-daughter team of Lester and Carol Reed (Chapter 7)--third and fourth generation residents whose family was famous for
snake oil production--is most illustrative, but that of Bill Galick, a Vermont native, relict of the past and modern pioneer (the title of Chapter 8) is even more fascinating.
One is the greedy, lying, cheating
snake oil salesmen represented by Mark Twain's "The King and the Duke" The other is represented by the down-to-earth common-sensical Huck and Jim, and the decent entrepreneurial Tom.
"It sounds like a
snake oil pitch," admits chemist Ronald Jandacek, an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine who once worked for olestra developer Procter & Gamble.
The truth is that most of the pills and potions that line store shelves and Web sites are little more than
snake oil, and behind their lofty references to scientific research, most of the marketers are little more than MBA-toting snake-oil sellers.
As "Pennsylvania
snake oil," oil was the preferred term for quack patent medicines worse than the disease.
In La Bayadere, poor little rich Gamzatti finds that a lowly temple maiden has stolen her prince's heart: time for a little
snake oil, with snake attached.
Proponents of 'it never fails' hangover cures are the modern equivalent of the old American
snake oil merchants.
"One guy in Boston actually looked at me and said, 'You keep saying fish oil, but I keep hearing
snake oil.'"
A FINE letter by Paul Brighton (March 31),however he fails totally to address the cause of low turnouts -institutionalised politicians who are less trustworthy than
snake oil salesmen and less credible than the infamous `Comical Ali' and who actually think they are important.
"It sounds like
snake oil, but, believe me, it's the real deal," concluded Byrd.
Worse, when confronted by less-than-terrific results from free market experimentation, wizened First World economists suddenly reanimate as 19th-century
snake oil salesmen, prescribing more of the same tonic that ails us: "Been trying it for 20 years and your people are still starving, your foreign debt is even larger, and your politicians more corrupt?
Tax professionals need to shut the door on the
snake oil salesmen."