Number Fifteen ©01/01/01 ••••••• Don Harthcock, Editor
OpinionSoup may contain language and topics unsuitable for children. "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun." ~Ecclesiastes, the Preacher (Eccles.1:9)
IN THIS ISSUE:
GOODBYE TO ENTERTAINMENT GREATS - Personal from Donny
AROMATHERAPY - "It's not scientific," says Dr. Prissybutt.
B-COMPLEX - the essential supplement for baby-boomers
COLDS PREVENTION - You might consider Florida.
GOLDENSEAL - will not help you pass your drug test
LOST LOVE, LOVE LOST - when eggs have legs...
MACADAMIA NUTS - from the wonderful land of Oz
ONION - Onion-eaters do not get worms.
STRESS - It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
UNPROCESSED FOODS - so good, and so good FOR you
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The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated any of the statements made in this publication, nor is that likely ever to happen. This publication is not meant to be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Since this publication is not intended to be diagnostic or prescriptive, the authors assume no responsibility for any adverse reactions resulting from the use of any information contained in it.
Goodbye to these Entertainment Greats
Personal from Donny
The year 2000 saw the passing of many of our most favorite Entertainment Greats, my friend crazy-man Jim Varney among them. Most of these people were older than I, but some of them were younger. I have made two New
Year's Resolutions that I plan to keep, because this could be the year that I take my Definitive Journey. Or you. Or anyone. As you read of the passing of these Greats, why don't you resolve to live 2001 in total awareness of the Here and Now, which is where Life is.
The following information was gathered from iWon.com.
SIR ALEC GUINNESS, 86 - British Shakespearean actor, Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars, Oscar-winner for Bridge on the River Kwai, memorable performances truly too numerous to mention
CHARLES SCHULZ, 77 - cartoonist, creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy of Peanuts
CLAIRE TREVOR, 91 - Oscar winner for 1948's Key Largo
DOUG HENNING, 52 - magician, illusionist, star of TV magic shows of the 70's and '80s
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR., 90 - Famed American leading man known for his swashbuckling roles in such film classics as Gunga Din
DURWARD KIRBY, 88 - Sidekick and announcer on The Garry Moore Show and Candid Camera
GEORGE MONTGOMERY, 84 - Sculptor, Cowboy actor who made 87 movies
GWEN VERDON, 75 - Four-time Tony winning Broadway dancer, star of Can Can, Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, collaborated with husband Bob Fosse
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, 83 - Chicago poet, first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize
HEDY LAMARR, 86 - Austrian-born actress of the 30's and 40's, "the world's most beautiful woman"
HELEN MARTIN, 88 - Broadway actress, helped found the American Negro Theater in Harlem
HOYT CURTIN, 78 - Musical director for Hanna-Barbera, composed theme songs for The Flintstones and The Jetsons
JASON ROBARDS, 78 - Oscar-winner for All the President's Men, Oscar-winner for Julia, famed for his interpretations of the plays of Eugene O'Neill
JEAN PETERS, 73 - Movie star and wife of billionaire Howard Hughes
JIM VARNEY, 50 - Ernest, saved Christmas, friend of Vern, voice of Slinky Dog in Toy Story
SIR JOHN GIELGUD, 96 - British stage actor famed for interpretations of Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo, Oscar-winner for Arthur, supporting Dudley Moore, mentor to Sir Alec Guinness
JULIE LONDON, 74 - Actress, singer, known for 50's hit Cry Me A River, wife of Jack Webb
JULIUS EPSTEIN, 91 - Oscar-winning co-writer (with twin brother Philip) of Casablanca
LARRY LINVILLE, 60 - Major Frank Burns of TV's M*A*S*H
LORETTA YOUNG, 87 - former child-actress of the silent screen, Oscar-winner for The Farmer's Daughter, star of NBC's The Loretta Young Show
MEREDITH MACRAE, 56 - TV actress, talk-show host, Billie Jo in Petticoat Junction, daughter of Sheila and Gordon MacRae
MURIEL EVANS, 90 - Cowgirl actress, starred with Buck Jones, John Wayne, Hopalong Cassidy
NANCY MARCHAND, 71 - Actress, played Lou Grant's publisher, mafia matriarch on The Sopranos
RICHARD FARNSWORTH, 80 - stuntman, Oscar-nominated actor for Comes A Horseman and The Straight Story
RICHARD MULLIGAN, 67 - Comic actor, Emmy-winner for TV's Soap and Empty Nest
RICK JASON, 74 - Lt. Gil Hanley of Combat!
RING LARDNER, JR., 85 - Oscar-winning screenwriter, imprisoned and blacklisted during the post-WWII anti-Communist witch-hunt of the HCUA
ROEBUCK STAPLES, 85 - Patriarch of The Staples Singers, known for Respect Yourself
ROSE HOBART, 94 - 20-year film career as "the other woman," blacklisted by HCUA
STEVE ALLEN, 78 - Actor, author, comedian, composer, pioneer of talk-show TV, first host of NBC's The Tonight Show
STEVE REEVES, 74 - Actor and bodybuilder, star of many 50's and 60's B Movies
THOMAS YOHE, 63 - Emmy-winning co-creator of Schoolhouse Rock
TITO PUENTE, 77 - Cuban-born percussionist, five-time Grammy winner, Latin jazz bandleader in The Mambo Kings
VICTOR BORGE, 91 - Danish-born pianist, conductor and musical humorist
WALTER MATTHAU, 79 - Oscar Madison of The Odd Couple, co-star of Grumpy Old Men, Oscar-winning actor
WERNER KLEMPERER, 80 - German-born actor, composer, conductor, Col. Klink of Hogan's Heroes
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- In France, they've got you covered!
This alternative health therapy, very well-known in Europe, is considered something new by many Americans. It is certainly not a modern idea, having been in use (as such) in France for nearly a hundred years. Essential Oils are actually covered by most French health-insurance plans! Without having been called such, Aromatherapy is actually ancient...Essential Oils were valued in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Aromatherapy is beneath the notice of most American doctors, who consider its success stories to be merely anecdotal...therefore, "unscientific." To these "scientists," if it's not drugs or surgery, it's not medicine. Donny refers to this as The Prissybutt Theory.
Rene Gattefosse, a French chemist, is considered to be the father of modern Aromatherapy. The present-day application of his ideas, however, differs widely from early discoveries.
Experts agree that most Essential Oils are too "strong" to be applied directly to your body...you'll want to dilute them with a carrier oil such as Grapeseed. Here are the four most common ways to utilize Essential Oils:
BATHING: Pour a litttle bit directly into your bathwater;
INHALATION: the "traditional" method...a few drops on a cloth;
MASSAGE: Oils are diluted with a carrier and massaged directly;
VAPORIZATION: in a diffuser, a heated potpourri pot, or candles.
The most popular Essential Oils used in Aromatherapy are Chamomile, Eucalyptus, Jasmine, Lavender, Neroli, Orange, Peppermint, Rose, Tea Tree, and Grapeseed (carrier oil). There are many more, and many combinations.
The therapeutic use of Essential Oils in massage, on burns and in candles and bathwater, is perhaps easier to accept here in cynical America than the belief of most therapists that the oils "strike a sympathetic note" in humans. The role of scent in healing is not clearly understood, but it is accepted that such oils as Lavender can calm a patient, induce sleep, and sometimes ease headaches. Sniffing Peppermint Oil also relieves headaches, and has the added benefit of cutting your food cravings. Aromatherapists believe that Essential Oils carry a plant's energy and that they can elevate your own vital life-force.
Think of how we are affected by various scents, and you begin to understand Aromatherapy better. Sexual arousal by various scents is clearly understood, I am sure, and certain evocative aromas can be most settling and calming in other, non-sexual ways. For months after my father died, for example, my mother slept cuddling the last shirt that he wore. Olfactory stimuli are channeled directly to our limbic systems, and any hypnotic, calming action may allow the mind to heal the body.
Donny's personal aromatherapeutic recommendations are possibly heretical, but I am immensely pleased by the smell of clean babies and puppies! I also love baby and puppy feet, which has nothing to do with aroma; they're just so soft and undamaged! I have to go a-visiting for those stimuli, but in my own house you will always smell aromatic candles, incense, and garlic! Also, possibly, the cat box, but that would be unintentional.
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- Andy Warhol's favorite vitamin supplement*
This is a group of water-soluble Vitamins including B1 (Thiamine), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin, Niacinamide), B6 (Pyridoxine), B12 (Cobalamin), Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, Folic Acid, Choline, Inositol and PABA (Para-Amino-Benzoic-Acid), occurring chiefly in beans, eggs, fish, liver, meats, nuts, poultry, green leafy vegetables, whole-grain cereals and yeast. B-Complex is all the B-Vitamins together. See individual entries.
B-Complex Vitamins are Co-Enzymes involved in energy production. They are important for normal functioning of the nervous system, for healthy hair, skin, eyes, liver, and mouth, and for gastrointestinal tract muscle-tone. Vitamin B, depending upon its form, fits into different parts of the metabolic functions of every cell. Each B-Vitamin has a specialized purpose and function.
B-Complex has been recommended by naturopaths for anxiety, depression, fatigue, and hypoglycemia. Health-care professionals frequently recommend individual B-Vitamins for specific ailments; e.g., B3 for arthritis and memory loss, and B6 for carpal tunnel syndrome. Nutritionists go ballistic at this practice, believing that intake of B-Vitamins should be carefully and equally balanced. An increase in one B-Vitamin only, many of them believe, will create a false-yet-real deficiency in the others. This is logical...although a trifle dogmatic...and not entirely wrong.
Generally, however, Donny does not subscribe to this nutrition-school homily, because B-Vitamins are not perfectly balanced in the foods that we eat. Prescriptive supplementation with high doses of specific B-Vitamins is not likely to last long enough to cause a dangerous imbalance.
Because of their water solubility, B-Vitamins are not stored in the body; any excess is flushed and excreted in urine. Alcohol, caffeine, illness, some medications (especially antibiotics and oral contraceptives), pollution, processed foods, stress and sugar are all known to destroy B-Vitamins. In order to keep your body running in top form and to prevent nutritional deficiencies, the B-Vitamins must be replaced continuously. The B-Complex is most effective when there are concomitant proper levels of Vitamins C and E, and Calcium.
Speaking of flushing and excreting, here's an artistic note you won't read in anybody else's Vitamin book: if you have in your toilet tank one of those tablets that turns the water blue and you've been taking a lot of B-Vitamins, you'll get a gorgeous green color in the bowl when you pee.
*HOLD IT! WAIT! Don't get disgusted yet; there's more! Because your first urination (after taking B-Vitamins) is a bright yellow, Andy Warhol once made one of his health-nut proteges pee on a canvas before he finished painting it. The person who owns that painting probably could have identified it blindfolded, for a couple of months.
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- "Feed a cold...starve a fever." ~Dr. A. Nonymouse
Feed your cold Vitamin C, Echinacea, Zinc, and Chicken Soup.
Edited and revised by me, the following non-nutritional advice for the colds and flu season appeared originally in Herbal Resource, free newsletter of Nature's Resource Premium Herbs. This company has since been acquired by a giant, Japanese pharmaceutical conglomerate. If you print and post this on your company bulletin board, highlight the next paragraph:
Write this note to yourself: http://www.OpinionSoup.com is a web site I must visit the minute I get home and go online. I will bookmark it and come back every few days to see what's new.
THE EIGHT COMMANDMENTS 1. Wash your hands more frequently.
2. Avoid putting your fingers in your mouth, and avoid rubbing your eyes.
3. When a flu epidemic is raging, AVOID crowded, poorly-ventilated areas such as movie theaters, airplanes, restaurants, casinos and company break-rooms, for the duration.
4. Avoid public water fountains.
5. Use paper cups in your bathroom and kitchen. Insist that family members take a fresh cup each time and dispose of it properly. With small children, you will need to become the Paper Cup Police.
6. Change the filters in your air-conditioning / heating units more frequently.
7. Wipe your door knobs, faucets, sinks and toilet handles often, with a reliable household disinfectant.
8. BUT...don't hide out in your home all winter long in fear of colds and flu (there are worse things)! Dress and eat properly, take sensible precautions, and enjoy the uniqueness of Winter.
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- second most-popular herb for shortening the duration of Winter colds
A North American perennial, Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) helps promote the growth of helpful bacteria in the intestines; it also helps loosen and eliminate yucky mucus.
Native Americans (especially Cherokee and Iroquois) used Goldenseal for local inflammations and infections during the winter months. Along with Echinacea, Goldenseal is today the most-used "winter" herb for colds and flu. Goldenseal tea will help heal chancre sores and cracked lips.
Antiseptic and a natural sinus reliever, Goldenseal is famous for "cleaning you out," and many weekend pot-smokers take it regularly to increase their chances of passing a routine drug test (forget about it). It will alleviate mild conjunctivitis, a common side effect of pot-smoking, when it is used as an eyewash; however it is doubtful that the THC traces will be eliminated. The basis of standardization for Goldenseal is Hydrastine, qualitative for Berberine (used in commercial eyedrops).
Goldenseal reduces inflammation of mucous membranes, heals vaginal yeast infections, reduces hemorrhoids, and is a laxative. It cleanses the Liver and is a blood purifier; it has been prescribed for alcoholics. Augment this herbal supplement with Echinacea.
As a natural herb, Goldenseal has been over-harvested and is now rarely found in the wild. It is approved as an over-the-counter drug in Canada and the UK; it is listed in the French Pharmacopoeia. Prior to 1936, it was officially a member of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States. Since that time, of course, we have been led down the pharmaceutical path by the FDA and the AMA, in league with pharmaceutical manufacturers.
CAUTION: DO NOT TAKE GOLDENSEAL IF YOU ARE NURSING. IF YOU ARE PREGNANT, BE ADVISED THAT GOLDENSEAL MAY CAUSE UTERINE CONTRACTIONS. DO NOT TAKE GOLDENSEAL CONTINUOUSLY FOR A LONG TIME, AS IT CONTAINS ALKALOIDS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS TO YOUR LIVER. DO NOT TAKE GOLDENSEAL IF YOU HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
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- You can't get it back, yet it's never quite gone.
WHEN EGGS HAVE LEGSWhen eggs have legs
When bats wear hatsWhen monkeys shine
And rats chase catsThat's when I'll stop loving you
That's when I'll stop loving youHumpback in the ocean, sister in the sea
Can't you find my baby, bring her back to me?
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- the nuts down under
My nephew said to me the other day, "These look a little bit like Brazil Nuts, but they taste a whole lot better. Where is Macadamia, anyway?"
"You dumb-ass, it's in Greece!" his older brother broke in, scornfully. "Why do you think they cost so much?"
Actually, Macadamia Nuts are the hard-shelled seeds of the Australian tree Macadamia ternifolia (also M. integrifolia), now cultivated in California and Hawaii, as well. The name honors John Macadam, a Scottish-born Australian chemist, but don't ask me why. Was he perhaps the first White Man to eat them? He did not invent the pavement of the same name...that was John McAdam, another Scot.
Macadamia Nuts...tasty and expensive...are about 75% FAT.
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- the Jewel of Vegetables
A hamburger without Onion (Allium cepa) is just a ground beef sandwich. I love Onions! Especially Red Onions, Purple Onions, Vidalia Onions, and Bermuda Onions. And scallions.
And let me say this: Onions do not give you bad breath; they give you Onion breath, which, combined with bad breath, is a real killer.
Here's something exciting: Onions are good for heart ailments, and they help control both high and low blood pressure (but how do it know?). Onions make you sweat, they stimulate digestion, and they cleanse the intestines. Onions will increase your HDL (good cholesterol) levels, tipping the scales in your favor in the HDL/LDL (good/bad) cholesterol department. They will also lower your blood sugar, and they are somewhat antibiotic.
Onions are native to western Asia and have been known in written history (especially Chinese) for more than 4,000 years. The Chinese call Onion the Jewel of Vegetables. Onions were cultivated by the ancient Babylonians and were part of the diet of slaves who built the Pyramids in Egypt.
This just in from Ann Landers: "Rubbing a bee sting with half a juicy Onion will stop pain and reduce swelling."
My mother's family claimed that Onions "get rid of worms," and there was ALWAYS a plate or bowl or raw Onions on their dining table. That family really loved Onions, and not one of them ever had worms.
Medieval herbalists prescribed Onion Juice and Vinegar to remove skin blemishes.
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- "NEVER work on your own automobile." ~Don Harthcock
Stress, Inc., is a major contractor in the construction of roads on which diseases travel. I realize you must know what Stress is, and you probably have your own pet theories for handling it. Here is a natural, dietary way: maintain a nutritious, well-balanced diet, being sure to replace Vitamins B and C daily; your B's and C get used up quickly when you are stressed.
Also, maintain a well-balanced life. Investigate T'ai Chi, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga. They may not be the thing for you, and they might be. Learn how to breathe properly; that is, slowly and deeply.
Donny also offers the following non-nutritional advice for combatting Stress:
DONNY'S ANTI-STRESS TEN COMMANDMENTS 1. Exercise 30 minutes per day, and get plenty of sleep (two commandments; counts as one).
2. Visit older people, especially your own relatives and anyone in a nursing home.
3. Don't work on your own automobile.
4. Substitute the word "and" for "but" in your vocabulary.
5. Don't set unattainable goals for yourself or your children; do your best without demanding perfection. Clint Eastwood said, "A man's got to know his own limitations."
6. Get a non-human pet and talk to it. Nephews are no good for this; they talk back.
7. Don't ever strike another human being in anger; wait until you are calm.
8. Plant something; talk to it, and watch it grow. It if dies, plant another one; this time, give it some water.
9. Spend some time around children, especially your own. If you have a natural facility for story-telling, make up your own stories which relate to them personally. Otherwise, read to them (it will do you as much good as it does them). Make mistakes on purpose; kids love that...if they don't correct you loudly, they're sleeping.
10. "Don't worry; be happy!" (Meher Baba)
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- Give your colon a break!
Unprocessed Foods are the most nutritious, have the most vitamins, minerals and fiber, often cost the least, have the least additives (none) and the least Fat, come with minimal packaging, and are not concentrated (therefore, colon-friendly). Here's a short list of highly-nutritious, cheap Unprocessed Foods that you can live well on:
Bananas
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Chicken
Dried Beans & Lentils
Eggs
Fish
Garlic
Greens,
Milk
Onions
Oranges
Potatoes
Rice
Whole-Wheat FlourNow if you only had Donny to prepare these delicious foods for you! But you don't! So go to Jessica's Biscuit, grab yourself a cookbook, and GET BUSY!
Lest I suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Prissybutt Nutritionists and Vegetarians, let me add this dietary caveat:
Store-bought Chicken flesh may indeed contain DES (diethylstilbestrol), antibiotics and amphetamines, which are fed to all livestock, more than judiciously. Ditto for store-bought Eggs. Ditto for store-bought Milk.
OpinionSoup is published by Don Harthcock. OS#15 ©01/01/01, Don Harthcock & Brian McLeod. Reproduction of any part of this copyrighted publication for commercial purposes is prohibited. Taping to refrigerators, posting on bulletin boards & emailing to friends is cool.
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