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Poisonous Beetles

Lytta-vesicatoriaand the Democratic party

The blister beetle or Spanish fly is a marvelous creature.  It secretes a substance called cantharidin which causes chemical burns and blisters.  They can be extremely painful. The substance is secreted by the male and gifted to the female, who uses it to coat her eggs.  When it was discovered in the 18th century, it was considered one of the strongest poisons, on par with strychnine.  But the poisonous cantharidin has important medical applications: it kills warts.

Last year, my 11-year old daughter developed a painful case of plantar warts.  These are caused by the HPV virus and they are extremely difficult to treat.  Mika had two removed surgically, but as long as the virus is present, they can keep coming back.  For that reason, when she developed a third one, the doctor finally recommended trying cantharidin.

The application itself wasn’t too bad but within hours it started acting out.  Even though Mika had taken a pain killer, the pain in her foot was excruciating.  She begged me to stop it, but it was inside her, so there was nothing we could do.

The cantharidin was forming a blister underneath the wart, killing both the skin and the wart.  Interestingly, the surface of the skin never blistered much.  We didn’t go back to the doctor to have the wart removed either – Mika didn’t want to have anything to do with doctors anymore -, but eventually the pain stopped and the wart was gone.  It’s been many months, and she’s wart-free so far.

I thought about blister beetles and cantharidin when I read a quote from an anonymous colleague of mine at the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee (ACDCC) calling me “poisonous”.  Sometimes political bodies, just like organisms, can get a virus and develop a wart.  In the case of the ACDCC, it has to do with conflicts-of-interest and a lack of commitment to transparency.   I can only hope that my “poison” will be as effective here, as beetle poison was for my daughter.

 

How to remove lipstick from a build-a-bear

buildabear“Mommy, how do you get lipstick from a build-a-bear,”? my daughter asked one evening.  Being the clueless homemaker that I am, I told her I didn’t know, and to look it up online.

She found another girl with the same problem but no actual answers.  So she used her ingenuity. Lipstick is make-up, she figured, so why not use makeup remover?  OK, the only one she could find was Maybelline Expert Eyes Moisturizing Eye Makeup Remover, but she gave it a try and IT WORKED!  The bear is as good as new, and moisturized!

So now you know, if your stuffed animal gets makeup, try makeup remover.

Love Toast Shower Crème – Review

lovetoastI got a couple of  Love & Toast  body washes (or, as the bottle calls them, shower crèmes) at Grocery Outlet, as they were on sale for $2 for the the 8.2 fl oz bottle.  Usually, they retail for around $12!

The reason is that in addition to a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals, they have a bunch of natural oils and extracts.  Dew Blossom, for example, has minute amounts of pollen, honeysuckle, apricot, and matricaria extracts.   They also don’t have parabens and other things that may be bad for you.

As a body wash, they seem to work pretty well.  They have a nice lather and a good, neither too thick or thin consistency.  The bottle could be a little easier to squeeze, but it’s attractive and takes little room.

So far, Ive used the Dew Blossom and the Salt & Sea.  A reviewer described Dew Blossom as smelling like play-dough, and I can actually understand the comparison.  It’s basically a powdery, sweetish scent.  It reminds me of the perfumed powder my grandmother might have had, but it’s very light.  Salt & Sea smells of citrus and salt.  Basically, like a margarita would smell.  It’s a little bit strange because you don’t necessarily feel like you are cleaning yourself, when you  smell salty, but overall I like it.  I probably wouldn’t get more dew blossom, but might get another bottle of salt & sea.

I haven’t tried the body lotions, also available at Grocery Outlet for $2, but I might get one today before they are all gone. Update: I smelled the lotions, they’re all too citrusy for me.

DealFlicks Twitter Follower Spam

Twitter spam is just as annoying as regular spam – perhaps even more so, as it trades on your good will and desire to play by the rules.  The way it works is simple: a would be spammer starts following you, banking that you will follow them back as a courtesy.  A smart spammer will then mix random tweets with once advertising its product, hoping you’ll mistake the ads for real tweets.

DealFlicks goes an extra step.  It apparently either hires interns, or, just as likely, creates them with the purpose of setting up twitter accounts.  The accounts include stylish photos of attractive young women with generic names like “Sophia Smith” or “Abigail Davis”.  It’s the description of each “intern” which alerted me to their spammines.  They are all along the same lines, e.g.  “Film geek. Avid movie aficionado. Explorer. Student. Social media nerd. Closet organizer. DealFlicks intern. #FollowBack #F4F#TeamFollowback.”  The hashtags are those used by spammers trying to get followers.     I’ve had three Dealflick interns follow me in the last couple of days, and I expect more, as they seem to have a legion of these accounts.

If you are curious as to why you’re being followed by multiple people with identical descriptions, like I was, you may google DealFlicks and find out that it’s a website for discount movie tickets.  An unethical, spammy website that doesn’t deserve anyone’s patronage.  Now you know to avoid them.

 

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