| Monday, May 24, 2004 |
12:16 - Folk remedies of the benighted 21st Century
http://www.osh.com/Cultures/en-US/Projects/OSHTips/Projec+OSH+Tips.htm
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Something was nagging at my mind as I read Lileks' Jetsam Cove entry on the endearing 1911 snake-oil panacea Celery-Fo-Mo. The package included a bunch of random "Worth Knowing" household tips, like how to whiten your skin by rubbing epsom salts in, or how to wash your hair in tartar sauce.
Barbarism! Alchemy! We chortle at it today, nearly a century on. But then our TV comes on with one of the many ads for Orchard Supply Hardware, which recommends fixing squeaky floors with baby powder, cutting paint fumes by stirring in vanilla, preventing clogged sinks with Alka-Seltzer tablets, and enhancing the aroma of your roses by burying onion slices next to the roots. All delivered through the demonstrative power of actors on the tube.
Someday I suppose our great-grandchildren will giggle at our foibles too...
UPDATE: Like, for instance, this. Which I saw in the local Safeway. No kidding.
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Brian Tiemann
