Stranger things

[Nungali]

 

[Taomeow]

Know these?  I saw them for the first time last year washed onto all of our beaches -- thousands of them.   As the summer progressed, they dried up and became indistinguishable from pieces of plastic littering the shore -- except unlike plastic, they eventually disintegrate with no harm to the environment.

And now they're back.  Some people claim they sting.  I try not to step on them so I'm not sure it's true.    

 

[Sanity Check]

57 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

Know these?  I saw them for the first time last year washed onto all of our beaches -- thousands of them.   As the summer progressed, they dried up and became indistinguishable from pieces of plastic littering the shore -- except unlike plastic, they eventually disintegrate with no harm to the environment.

And now they're back.  Some people claim they sting.  I try not to step on them so I'm not sure it's true.    

 

 

 

Resembles portuguese man o war.

 

The sting is not as bad as jellyfish.

 

Some advise peeing on the wound but its more like a inside joke / running gag than sound advice.

[Nungali]

5 hours ago, Taomeow said:

Know these?  I saw them for the first time last year washed onto all of our beaches -- thousands of them.   As the summer progressed, they dried up and became indistinguishable from pieces of plastic littering the shore -- except unlike plastic, they eventually disintegrate with no harm to the environment.

And now they're back.  Some people claim they sting.  I try not to step on them so I'm not sure it's true.    

 

 

To me they fill the memories of a childhood day at the beach !     Zinc cream , hot chips  and .........   ' blue bottles ! '   

[Nungali]

Hmmmm ..... close examination ; " If there are this many on the beach, maybe they have all blown in ?"   <scans the ocean >   "I don't think there are too many over that way ." ..... 

 

 

[Taomeow]

I'm sure it was effective -- hardly anyone retains the ability to cough under general sedation.  But what it did to grammar was atrocious. 

 

[Nungali]

 < fake cough >   

 

Quick !   I need some of that ! 

[Sanity Check]

 

 

Wonder if a modern moat.

 

Might deter wild pigs and unwanted visitors.

[Taomeow]

3 hours ago, Nungali said:

 < fake cough >   

 

Quick !   I need some of that ! 

 

Three of the ingredients are OK, but chloroform and those undisclosed "other essentials" would definitely give me pause.

 

 

 

 

[Taomeow]

1 hour ago, Sanity Check said:

 

 

Wonder if a modern moat.

 

Might deter wild pigs and unwanted visitors.

 

This reminded me of a friend of mine who lived in the neighborhood, who had an arroyo behind his house.  I don't know if this is something known outside arid areas like ours -- a waterway that is dry much of the time but turns into a moat of sorts after enough rain.  This friend fed a few local stray cats in front of it, and when the arroyo filled with water after a rainy season, it didn't deter them.  They jumped right over.    

[old3bob]

Didn't know this about the original source for the term:

Snake Oil—Salesmen and Doctors

"While today a “snake oil salesman” is someone who knowingly sells fraudulent goods, the use of snake oil has real, medicinal routes. Extracted from the oil of Chinese water snakes, it likely arrived in the United States in the 1800s, with the influx of Chinese workers toiling on the Transcontinental Railroad. Rich in omega-3 acids, it was used to reduce inflammation and treat arthritis and bursitis, and was rubbed on the workers’ joints after a long day of working on the railroad.

Enter Clark Stanley, “The Rattlesnake King.” Originally a cowboy, Stanley claimed to have studied with a Hopi medicine man who turned him on to the healing powers of snake oil. He took this new found “knowledge” on the road, performing a show-stopping act at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, where he reached into a bag, grabbed a rattlesnake, cut it open, and squeezed it. He labeled the extract snake oil, even though the FDA later confirmed that his products didn’t contain any kind of snake oil, rattlesnake or otherwise. That didn’t stop other unscrupulous doctors and fraudulent salesmen, who also started traveling the American West, peddling bottles of fake snake oil, giving the truly beneficial medical treatment a bad name."