Toothsome

I forgot to show you the necklace f00dave made for me: here and here.

I like it. oceanfiretribal also liked it, so now she has one, too.

I'm thinking of ordering more of the tusks in so I can also start costuming with them. The tusks come from the Ifugao tribe of the Phillipines, where boar tusks have a long, and magical history.

I like the armlet. I wonder if I could make something similar....

Hoorah for Victorian Scepticism

An excerpt from the excerptalicious Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds (pg 321):

As this new doctrine of magnetism spread, it was found that wounds inflicted with any metallic substance could be cured by the magnet. In process of time, the delusion so increased, that it was deemed sufficient to magnetise a sword, to cure any hurt which that sword might have inflicted! This was the origin of the celebrated "weapon-salve,' which excited so much attention about the middle of the seventeenth century. The following was the reipe given by Paracelsus for the cure of any wounds inflicted by a sharp weapon, except such as had penetrated the heart, the brain, or the arteries. "Take of moss growing on the head of a thief who has been hanged and left in the air; of real mummy; of human blood; still warm--of each, one ounce; of human suet, two ounces; of linseed oil, turpentine, and Armenian bole--of each, two drachms. Mix all well in a mortar, and keep the salve in an oblong, narrow urn." With this salve the weapon, after being dipped in the blood from the wound, was to be carefully anointed, and then laid by in a cool place. In the mean time, the wound was to be duly washed with fair clean water, covered with a clean, soft, linen rag, and opened once a day to cleanse of purulent or other matter. Of the success of this treatment, says the writer of the able article on Animal Magnetism, in the twelfth volume of the Foreign Quarterly Review, there cannot be the least doubt; "for surgeons at this moment follow exactly the same method, except anointing the weapon!"

And the Suppurating Fistula of a Customer Award of the Day Goes to...

Ugh.

I just had a total rectal hemhorrhage of a customer. The call went something like this:

Silly Customer (SC): I want to book a bus tour to Quebec.

Me: Er, I just book hotel rooms from here, but I can certainly give you the Quebec tourism number. They could help you out with bus tour information.

SC: Ok. What's the number?

Me: *gives the number*

SC: (suddenly VERY angry) But I want to book fifty rooms!

Me: Oh, I'm sorry. Which hotel are you looking for?

SC: WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT?

Me: I'm unable to check availability unless you can tell me which hotel you'd like to stay at.

SC: THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS! GIVE ME THE NUMBER FOR THE CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS!

Me: Certainly. *gives number*

SC: *growls*

Me: Is there anything else I can help you with?

SC: *hangs up*

Good grief.