4 ms·
Valentine’s Potion
- GistNoesis 7y agoEach age has its snake oil vendors. In the article it was arsenic. In the last century it was uranium and radium revitalizing products. Now we have thorium infused wearable ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22368960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22368960 ). Though if you want to get rid of your rich old husband it may not be as efficient.
- exhilaration 7y agoThere is a link in this article to this paper: http://wilsonweb.physics.harvard.edu/arsenic/UbiquitousPoison.pdf http://wilsonweb.physics.harvard.edu/arsenic/UbiquitousPoiso... And it's a fascinating history of the use of arsenic. If you're curious about whether you're consuming any arsenic, this Consumer Reports analysis of rice may interest you: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much-arsenic-is-in-your-rice/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-muc...
- onychomys 7y agoNote that Virgil actually wrote "...omnia vincit Amor...", not "Amor vincit omnia" like the article claims. See lines 68-70 here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0056%3Apoem%3D10 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...
- eindiran 7y agoThat's true, but Virgil just changed the word order to fit the meter (see dactylic hexameter[0]). Latin word order is relatively free, so poets would reorder things to make them fit the meter used. It also appears that the author of the article changed from the more standard verb-final ordering (SOV) to SVO because it fits the English translations word order better. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylic_hexameter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylic_hexameter
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- smoyer 7y agoMy father and grand-father are from Danville and I had relatives in Bloomsburg, just 9 miles away. Somewhere in my grand-father's family tree, one of my relatives created "Moyer's Oil of Gladness" in a time when snake-oil, elixirs and patent-medicines were very common. Most "worked" because they were alcohol and then became heavily promoted by doctors "treating" the wealthy during prohibition. I should also note (given the history described in the links below), that my grand-father and father are also William and my uncle is John. My siblings and cousins each have a nice stamped bottle (first image) as a keepsake. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/bloomsburg-pennsylvania-oil-gladness-442734346 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/bloomsburg-pennsylvan... https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1255540 https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nma... https://www.flickr.com/photos/elycefeliz/8704680638 https://www.flickr.com/photos/elycefeliz/8704680638
- throwawayhhakdl 7y agoThat’s hilarious. Any idea what else was in them? I’d presume they were basically tasty cocktails so as not to taste like alcohol. But perhaps they were made to taste awful?
- Psyladine 7y agoAh, Jeppson's Malört, only alcohol that survived prohibition on account of a taste so strong the government decided noone would enjoy drinking it.