Dear GOD, look at those DENTURES!

I have to admit as one of nearly 40 million denture wearers in the USA, I was somewhat taken aback by this photo! The HORROR!
Can you imagine this terrible contraption in your mouth? Honestly. I can't get it out of my mind that I've seen those teeth somewhere before...hmmmm. Wait a minute! Here they are!





I began to wonder about the history of dentistry and have learned many a thing since then...mainly that I'm grateful that it's the year 2009, when it comes to teeth anyway.

I've also learned these things;


a) your barber was also your dentist in the 1800's. Not always, sometimes
he was your GODFORSAKEN BLACKSMITH!!!!!!





b) Going to the Dentist/Barber/Blacksmith hurt sump'n fierce!
sump'n reeeaaaaallllll fierce!!





c) I thought my grandma's dentures were old!
dentures found fitted snugly in the 200 year
old corpse of an Archbishop! Arthur Richard Dillon
of Narbonne, France who died in 1806. WOW!

The Best Damned Glorified Rice Recipe you will ever taste! (Moms Cherry Pink Cloud)

I was specifically searching for a perfect vintage add
for Maraschino Cherries. I've looked high and low and have had no luck whatsoever. I've decided to post some other great old cherry stuff instead but I'm really, really searching for a true Maraschino cherry advertisement. Anyone out there have one? Let me know, I'd sure love to share it here.

Why Cherries?
I have just made one of my favorite treats, full of pineapple and yummy maraschino cherries! A delicious recipe that my mother made when I was a kid in the 70's and 80's. I'm guessing it originated from one of the wonderful cookbook recipes that find there way here, but then just about everything I ate as a kid came from one of those swell cookbooks. I collect them now. The recipe I made is one my Mom calls "Glorified Rice", it consists of cool whip, pineapple, marachino cherries and cold rice. When I was a kid mom used minute rice, regular cool whip, whole marachino cherries and that was that..sometimes she used a can of fruit cocktail. I have changed the recipe around a bit and renamed it "Moms Ultra Heavenly Cherry Pink Cloud". It is Soooo yummy that I lie awake thinking about it when I know it's in the fridge.  It consists of these simple, yet memory inducing ingredients:



Moms Ultra Heavenly Cherry Pink Cloud Recipe


3 cups cold cooked Arborio rice*
(Arborio is a must as other rices seem to harden in this particular recipe after more than a day in the fridge. The taste and consistency is perfect with arborio)

2 tubs of extra creamy style cool whip

1 can crushed and drained pineapple


10 or more finely chopped maraschino cherries
(to taste)

1/4 cup of the maraschino cherry syrup

1/2 cup granulated sugar



cook and cool your rice. put it in a large mixing bowl and

add the remaining ingredients above. Mix well and

refrigerate for an hour or so. The colder it is, the better.

The maraschino cherries and the maraschino

syrup give it a wonderful pink glow.  I have used up to a half cup of the syrup. It's really a personal taste thing.

I think it's perfect to round out a summer meal or just to

munch on any time. My husband absolutely loves it and is always asking for 'That cloud stuff!'

My kids love it too. The stuff keeps well covered for up to 5 days in a nice cold fridge. It never lasts that long here.

Drunkenness is a Disease and I can Cure it!

This was the famous slogan of Leslie E. Keeley, a civil war surgeon who announced his "cure" for alcoholism in 1879.

Keeleys cure consisted of gradually tapered off doses of whiskey : eight ounces the first day, six ounces the second, four ounces the third and (by God!) none from then on. Four times a day he (the patient) gets "gold chloride" injections and every two hours he takes a "tonic".*
Knowing what I know about alcoholism, the treatment must have been rather uncomfortable. The Keeley Institute was opened in 1880 for persons addicted to the "immoderate" use of alcohol and opium. The cure treatment was centered on the the "gold chloride" injections which were of a secret preparation.

Keeley's cure became world renown.

According to a Time magazine article printed on September 25th, 1939;
" Keeley clubs flourished all over the U. S., proud Keeley alumni sported shiny gold buttons, preached excitingly confessional sermons to female temperance societies. The same article stated that " Keeley stoutly boasts that it has cured 17,000 drunken doctors since it first opened its doors." Drunken Doctors? Wow. People believed in this treatment. Bi Chloride of Gold clubs were organized by patients in 1981. They met every morning, greeted trainloads of newly arriving alcoholics, heard speeches from members and read letters from graduates filled with encouragement. Branches of the club held services, concerts and fundraisers for poverty stricken alcoholics. State governments were petitioned to pass Keeley Laws that provided funding for chronic inibriates who could not pay for treatment on their own.

At one time there were over 200 branches of the Keeley Institute across the united states and Europe. Injections of the secret concoction of gold had been administered to over 300,000 people! Reports varied widely as to the real identity of the ingredients in the gold injection. Strychnine, alcohol, apomorphine, willow bark, ammonia and atropine were among the suggested chemicals. It was proven that there was never any "gold" in the injections, but by this time the hope that he had instilled in thousands of people had done it's job. It really didn't matter that there wasn't any real gold at the end of the rainbow.

Keeley had managed
to change the the American collective of thought that Alcoholism was the product of weak will, sin or just plain lacking in morals.