FRAZZLED

Hearing my hacking, sniffling, and whining, Les asked, "Is it about time for your annual stress-related cold?" I said, "Well, it usually happens between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I have been working myself to a frazzle lately." He laughed, because I pronounced frazzle the way our grandmother always did: FRAHH-ZELL! I knew perfectly well the proper pronunciation, but somehow, saying it her way made frazzle more emphatic!

I've long known that there's a direct correlation between stress and depression and getting a cold. (See attached). I also know that the symptoms I have--sneezing, watery eyes, and runny nose--mean that I am getting well. That logic doesn't make me feel any better. Yes, I'm having a pity party!

Les came in the family room and asked, "Is that Vicks salve?" I said, "Yep!" He said, "I didn't think they sold it any more." As I was applying it liberally to my chest and UNDER my nose, he said, "YUCK, that jar's about a hundred years old!" I looked at the jar and the label was practically translucent from years of greasy hands grasping the bottle. I said, "It's probably psychological, but I feel better already." Les answered, "No, it's making you delusional!" I was covered in my big, warm, fuzzy blankie and when I uncovered to go to the kitchen, he screamed with laughter, "You're wearing flannel pajamas!" I am a nightgown-kind of girl and I wear pajamas ONLY when I'm sick. He said, "OMG, you have on Syracuse Orangemen pajamas!" YES, I did. Would someone expect Notre Dame pajamas from a descendant of County Tyrone stock?

Vicks VapoRub IS still produced; see the attached article telling other uses for my "wonder drug"!

CLICK HERE to read: How Stress Influences Disease: Study Reveals Inflammation as the Culprit.

CLICK HERE to read: Uses of Vicks Salve.

A LOVELY LIGHT

A good friend called and when she heard my raspy voice (because of my having a cold), she cautioned me by saying: "It gives a lovely light." She didn't need to use the complete quote as we are usually simpatico and engage in verbal shorthand; I knew she was referring to an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem:


"My candle burns at both ends,
It will not last the night,
But, oh, my foes, and oh, my friends,
It gives a lovely light."

What a nice reminder to take care of myself!

We recited the poem together.

We spoke about how, as teenagers, we adored Millay. She asked, "Do you think anybody still reads her?" I said, "There's a Millay Society." She asked, "I wonder if we loved her so much because she was a feminist and free-thinker or because she was a great poet?" I said, "Well, you know what Thomas Hardy said--the two greatest things about America--skyscrapers and Millay!" She said, "Well, she's not in the GREAT category like Yeats."

I asked, "Remember Mort Sahl?" She said, "Wow, you DIGRESS!" I said, "No, he said, "They quoted Edna St. Vincent Millay, but they believed Henry Kaiser." She wailed, "How the Hell do you remember these things?" I asked, "How many times could you ever have a quote by Sahl about Millay?"

She said, "I think I'll drag out Dirge Without Music; I haven't heard it since you had it recited at a funeral."

Simultaneously, we both began to say, "And I am not resigned."

THE HERB LADY OF LAVENDER GLEN

My Red Hat Lady group was recently entertained with a performance by Susan Gingerich who portrays "the Herb Lady of Lavender Glen". The Herb Lady is dressed in garments reminiscent of early pioneer women and she pretends to be from 1830 transported into this era. She had gathered specimens from my yard and her presentation featured the historical uses of herbs and our relationship with other plants and the benefits of using natural products in cooking and healing. As I grew up with a mother who was an herbalist, I knew the "weeds". She held up plantain and I exclaimed, "Psyllium!" Several in the group knew "psyllium" but did not know that it came from a weed that might be in their yards. I told how Mother would gather the plantain "seeds" after green-gathering time and the plants had "gone to seed" and whenever any of us was "bound up" we were given some plantain seeds. Other plants she showed were yarrow, mint, elderberry, raspberry vine, and mullein--all from my yard.

Susan holds a PhD and is the President of The Ohio Sunshine Health Freedom Coalition which is a non-profit, grassroots organization which is dedicated to educating and informing the public about health freedom. She is an advocate for the passage of Ohio House Bill 259, a bill which "protects consumer access to homeopaths, naturapaths, nutritional consultants, and other natural and complementary and alternative practitioners providing services that do not rise to the level of concern requiring state licensing" (from the bill).

For more information, go to www.ohiohealthfreedom

THE GRIPPE

Yesterday an older friend called and left a message; in the message he said that to he couldn't come to a meeting because he thought he had "the grippe". I hadn't heard that term for at least 50 years! Les said, "Let's look it up!"
[grippe: an acute febrile contagious birus disease: influenza]

I laughed and said that it would definitely NOT be in my vocabulary. Les said, "You better write another article about words which make you sound old!" I've written several articles about those kind of words (see attached "DAVENPORT")CLICK HERE

Among the other words:

DAVENPORT
OLEO
REC ROOM
CHARLEY HORSE
RUMPUS ROOM
RECKON (as in "I reckon"))
PIKE (rather than route)
VEER a friend's daughter says that only old people use the word)

JUSTICE--FAYETTE COUNTY STYLE

My BLOG is mostly topical, or humorous, but when I heard of the murder of Trayvon Martin, I wanted to write about it because my mind went back to May 7, 1979, recalling when a sixteen-year-old boy was murdered in the local Kroger parking lot. His infraction, according to the murderer, was because he and his friend used dirty language.

12 fine Fayette County people--a jury of his peers--found the murderer not guilty by reason of insanity.

The following day, the murderer strutted the streets of Washington Court House with a gun strapped on his hip.

That's justice--Fayette County style!

I put the idea for an article in my DRAFT file.

Recently, the mother of that sixteen-year-old died and somehow, I felt bereft for not having followed up on that BLOG article comparing the senseless tragedy of her son to the other senseless tragedy of Trayvon.

The boy's mother worked for me in the 1970s and we were as close as a management/employee relationship would allow. How she was able to cope with the circus which surrounded her after the murder of her son, I do not know. I wanted to protect her from the ignorance of the so-called "good intentions" of people. I detested the "professional mourners" who crowded in to witness her devastating grief. At the funeral, I stayed busy keeping the S.O.B.'s at a distance. I felt, "How dare they come to bother her in her grief?" I thought, "The rats come out of the woodwork to view her sorrow." Those people have a sick fascination, but cloak it with their spurious platitudes about "paying their respects" and "making an appearance" or a whole litany of other cliches. We know that their perverse pleasure is in witnessing the anguish of others, but they always dutifully report "how well" the aggrieved are "holding up"; or judging "how bad they're taking it"! Perhaps they do not realize what they consider "kind words" are oftentimes wounding rather than comforting.

I'll never forget her telling me, "I want to die, but I have to stay alive because I have other children." In the intervening years, when I would see her, I would mention her son because she'd told me that she liked to talk about him to some people, but not to others! I told her I knew exactly how she felt because, when my brother died, I couldn't stand for some people to even say his name--but with my family and friends, I wanted to talk about him. When people would mention the circumstances--which they invariably do--it is like a fresh knife in the heart! My brother died in 1964 and someone recently asked, casually, "Oh, yeah, didn't that happen out on.....?" I stopped the person before they could mention the where, what, when, and how, or any other clinical details of his death. It still hurts. How can people be so obtuse? Why would any right-thinking person want to mention, ever so casually, the circumstance of a loved one's death? I have concluded that they are either stupid or perverse, or perhaps both!

The last time I saw the boy's mother, we were exchanging the usual hugs and pleasantries and I was looking at her Grandma's Brag Book with the pictures of the grandchildren and for a moment, she looked wistful, but it wasn't the time nor the place, there in Dollar General, to discuss what might have been.

She was a good mother, wife, grandmother, friend, and a good worker. I cannot think of higher praise.

CRINGE--MORE FAYETTE COUNTY TALK

My friend Vivian reminded me that I had not published a "CRINGE--FAYETTE COUNTY TALK" article in awhile.

It certainly isn't because I haven't heard NEW ones!

Just last week:

Someone said VICE-A VERSA rather than VICE VERSA!

FLUSTRATED--I haven't heard that in awhile.

MANGO instead of green bell pepper.

CLEMATIS--someone tried to correct my pronunciation!

TOWARDS instead of toward.

FOR SURE (pronounced as one word FERSHURE)