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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-09-25, Page 5International Scene By Raymond Canon THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1996 PAGE 5. From academia to dust rags Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance? Phyllis Diller When Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner — then clean the house! Roseanne Barr Ah, housework — the bane of everyone's life. Endless hours of dreary drudgery, picking up socks and dusting furniture. Mopping floors and cleaning sinks and toilets. Housework is boring, repetitive, unchallenging, mind-numbing ... Or maybe not. Take the case of Louise Rafkin. Louise is a bespectacled, studious looking middle- aged woman who lives and works near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. When she speaks she does so with a cultured, dignified air. She chats easily about French post-modernist authors and up-and-coming Afro-American writers. If you met her on the street you might guess that she was a professor of something or other — and you wouldn't be far wrong. Just a little out of date. Louise Rat-kin used to be an academic. She Garlic and more Earlier this year I wrote about the foreign origins of garlic, its use in cooking and especially medical applications which it had. I thought that would be the end of it all but a short while after the article appeared, I got a call from an organization in Toronto which was involved in research on garlic's medicinal uses. After checking to make sufe that I was the one who had actually written the article, they informed me that garlic had considerably more uses than those I mentioned. While the expression "miracle drug" did not enter the conversation, it was evident from the enthusiasm shown by the caller that we had just scratched the surface. My article had been obtained through a clipping service. I didn't know that they paid attention to weekly newspapers, but obviously they do since the woman who called said she had already received copies from several newspapers. At any rate she was pleased that somebody would take the trouble to write about garlic. Actually there seems to have been quite a bit written about it in the last few months. Perhaps it is just a popular subject. However, rather than go into further details on garlic, I thought it might be appropriate at this time to take a look at some other plants of foreign origin that have contributed to our medicinal cabinet. I am going to try to bring you a few that are certainly not as well known as garlic; in fact, you may read about them here for the first has an MA in comparative literature. She was a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a full professor at UCLA. Louise Rafkin was a gifted thinker with a rosy future in the Groves of Academe. Her mother was extremely proud of her. There was just one tiny problem: Louise hated it. She spent all day discussing literary aesthetics with other academics and students, then went home to spend the evening marking papers. "I really don't think I was a very good teacher" she says, "so I stopped." But her bills didn't. And neither did the mortgage on her house. So Louise Rafkin, academic, became Louise Rafkin, charwoman. Chucked the robes and the treatises and the scholarly afternoon teas for buckets, mops, brooms and vacuum cleaners. Her colleagues — not to mention her mother — were appalled. But Louise Rafkin loved her new life. And she was very, very good at it. "I am thorough and fast and I enjoy leaving a clean house behind. I keep my own house pretty darned neat." She liked the money too. Because she is efficient, she makes up to $45 U.S. an hour. "As much as a good mechanic or a bad therapist" she says. And she's picky about the people she accepts as clients. "No families with kids or dogs, outdoor cats only. Absolutely no litter boxes." Louise also loves the "espionage" element time. Let's open by taking a look at Kava, (sometimes called Kava Kava) which is a tall, leafy shrub found all over the South Pacific. No less a person than the explorer James Cook described it as an "intoxicating pepper". A non-alcoholic drink made from the plant has also been described as having "a kick of a shot of whiskey with a Novocaine chase to boot." That should make you sit up and take notice. Actually Kava Kava is known as a sedative which relaxes you, but still leaves your mind alert enough to carry out your normal functions. It apparently leaves no hangover as does alcohol, nor does it impair your mental judgment. One commercial pilot told of using it when flying the long stretches of the Pacific Ocean because it calmed his nerves without numbing his mind, in short, tranquility with mental clarity. Another plant with similar properties, and probably much better known than Kava Kava, is Valerian. This is originally from Europe, but is routinely available both there and in North America. One of its noticeable properties is its smell; it will never be sold as a perfume. So much for the relaxing medications. Let's go to Africa where the Hottentot tribe in the southern part of the continent have been using the buchu leaf for a wide variety of ailments for over a thousand years. It seemed to work better if taken with vinegar or alcohol, but I would imagine that this characteristic needs a bit more research before Labatts or Seagrams get around to of cleaning other people's houses. She gets to peek into strangers' lives and learns a surprising amount about them. "I know who is having sex with whom. (Condoms in the bathroom, stray hairs on the pillow). I know who is not having sex (separate rooms, separate beds). I find bottles 'hidden' behind the washer . . I find wastebaskets littered with crumpled lottery tickets." Is she a good house cleaner? After six years on the job, Louise Rafkin thinks so. "I deliver a clean house, at a fair price, and always show up when I say I will. I don't steal, and unless I am mad for some justifiable reason, I won't hide things so my clients can't find them." Then of course, there's the book. Old habits die hard — even academic ones. Louise is about to publish a book tentatively entitled Dust to Dust: A Cleaning Odyssey. It could become a best-seller. Who knows? We can all relate to housecleaning, and Louise Rafkin has found a way to make the dreary fascinating. I'll guarantee you one thing: If the book does take off and Louise becomes a celebrity; if she makes appearances on Letterman and gets invited on international book tours — even if she sells the movie rights and becomes fabulously rich on royalties, there's one thing I'm absolutely certain of. She won't be hiring anybody to clean her house. claiming their products to be the ideal mixture for this century-old remedy. It is good for cleaning up infections in both men and women, especially older ones. The latter seemed to respond especially quickly to the leaf and they discovered an added benefit; it is good for what ails you when you have a kidney stone. Perhaps the best indication that these medicines are effective is that the pharmaceutical companies have been quietly carrying out investigations of their own, attempting to persuade the local medicine men to part with their formulae. The Hottentots do not have any patent laws but some of the more observant of the tribes have come to the conclusion that there should be some protection; big international companies could conceivably gain considerable benefits from knowing the secrets at an extremely low cost. It will be interesting to see what happens next in this matter. I have just scratched the surface in the matter of natural remedies, for am sure that readers will have lists of their own. Soon after I came to Canada, I was amazed to find that pine pitch, put on a piece of paper and slapped on every cut and scratch quickly took the soreness out. While many remedies have found their way to Canada from the other continent, I am certain that there are others, like pine pitch, which have had their genesis here. Share your views... Write a letter to the editor The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Their turn's here They've always been a target for abuse. They stand out as symbols of the establishment, discipline and respect. They are often isolated, solitary figures which in the dead of night become victims to those who would like to send a message about what they represent. Vandalism at our schools is not something new. For decades, for the young people, who traditionally commit these crimes, they have been easels for destructive expression. Angst is acted out aggressively on the walls and windows of these domiciles of knowledge. Rebellion has always appreciated a forum and as Satanic messages on a church or the tearing up of textbooks will prove, it impacts a greater audience when that forum represents something that is a societal good. The issue of angry or frustrated young people is, contrary to what the volatile 90s may have us thinking, ages old. Ways to express the rage, the hostility or simply the immaturity surge from a soul in any number of ways. Joan of Arc was just a teen when she embarked upon her crusade. Billy was just a 'Kid' when he embarked on his career as an outlaw in the Wild West. James Dean was the quintessential rebel without a cause. My generation eschewed the materialistic world that our parents had struggled to build. We railed against the preachings of God, Queen and country, fought for peace and discovered a generation gap in music, psychedelia and drugs. Even when the intentions are good, kids do things that aren't always smart. They make mistakes, they exercise poor judgement. But even when the mistake is a bad one, there is a bit of forgiveness because adults generally remember what it feels like to be a kid. However, we now are the generation that pays the bills, too. Vandalism at any public venue is not just a bit of mischief, it is a cost to taxpayers. While the Huron County Board of Education did not have any comprehensive figures on the amount of dollars spent by taxpayers to repair or replace broken or stolen material in the schools it has been significant enough to prompt the installation of security systems a few years ago. While this has obviously decreased the vandalism substantially it doesn't stop exterior damage such as windows or playground equipment, nor will it inhibit the graffiti artists. In our municipalities not only does vandalism cost us money, it also does a disservice to our communities. The hard work of many to create and beautify within our towns is not enhanced by profanity slurred across the facades of buildings or in our parks. Fun and games it may be to those who care nothing for the establishment nor pay the bills, but for the majority it's an insult and an injury that chips away at our empathy and patience. 'Kids will be kids'. They are beautiful, full of energy and for the most part, brilliant futures waiting to happen. But while we may appreciate the adage there are a few for whom I for one am getting tired of paying the bill, or seeing others clean up the mess. For our sake— and thei's— it has to be their turn. Arthur Black