Presumably the same natural human tendency towards constant experimentation that led to cheese, civet coffee, and silk.
Well, it was the style at the time.
Do people try this with colicky babies, too? Maybe a scallion?
Yesterday, I learned that some horse owners attempt to cure a colicky horse by inserting an onion into the horse's rectum
Your relationship seems to be going well.
4: garlic salt and a repurposed neti pot.
Huh, horse colic and baby colic seem to have absolutely no relation to one another.
Of course if you shoved a scallion up your babies butt the crying wouldn't be unexplained anymore so maybe you could say it was cured.
I seem to recall -- from something emdash, maybe, posted elsewhere? -- that baby colic is actually a total mystery, and no one knows what causes it. Is this true?
that baby colic is actually a total mystery, and no one knows what causes it. Is this true?
According to Wikipedia that would be the defining characteristic. Basically boughts of intense crying for no discernible reason.
Lady Diana Cooper, playing the BVM, no less, during her stage career, obviously had to spend quite a lot of time on stage carrying a baby. Everybody noticed that the baby never cried or became obstreperous during these scenes, and eventually they asked her how she managed this.
"Oh it's easy," quoth she, "I just keep my finger up his arse."
Which seems to suggest that the scallion proposal might be worth trying.
And in 10 short comments we see how the mentalist checklist works to get to stick an onion up its butt.
I've been watching the BBC's Human Planet series, which is basically a bunch of documentaries about hunter-gatherers living in various inhospitable places (arctic, desert, jungle, etc), and this is the thing that keeps bowling me over throughout: how did they figure all this shit out? Like, if you drop a bit of venom from a certain snake in your eyes, it will sharpen up your eyesight for the hunt. How much deadly fucking up was necessary to figure that out and get it right? 10s of thousands of years, I guess.
This needs investigating. Imagine if it lead to a series of treatments for a whole range of maladies?
"What do you do for night terrors?"
"Chamomile."
"C'mon, something that works."
"Chamomile in the ass."
playing the BVM
Is this an established abbreviation? I managed to work it out after a minute, but I don't recall seeing it before.
Baron von Munchausen
Box-van Marty
Bolero's Vigorous Manhood
Box of Vaginal Matchsticks
Okay, I'm just kidding. It really means "Butthead Virgin Mary".
Stanley, after mentioning onion suppositories, did anybody suggest snipe hunting?
21: You wouldn't believe where I was supposed to look for the snipes.
My dad always refers contemptuously to the BV.
Well, you could find Wesley Snipes in jail, right? Are there any other Snipes of note?
My dad always refers contemptuously to the BV.
FAMILY QUARRELS CAN BE SO PAINFUL.
Teenage guys try all kinds of stupid dangerous skit. Might be useful for the tribe on the veldt
Boil Voile Mohel: the unorthodox sterile cloth circumcisionist.
My dad always refers contemptuously to the BV.
He'd be more sympathetic if he had a vagina of his own.
10 is especially good if you keep that anecdote in mind as you look at her hand in the pic at the top of her wikipedia page.
re: 26
It continues into adulthood, I think. Viz, friends drinking 'tequila stuntmen'.
I wonder if teenage boys are responsible for this sandwich. Or maybe high people.
33: that was really what I took from the anecdote.
I'm reminded of a joke about a cross-eyed cow, two farmers and a length of garden hose.
I'm reminded of an old joke about a cross-eyed cow, two farmers and a length of garden hose.
"You don't expect me to put my mouth where yours has been, do you?!?"
I heard that as a joke told by a Norwegian about Swedes: "You think I want your germs?"
I like your version better, it's more pithy.