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My friend and neighbor Joe Malago had been having trouble with both fists. Because of a carpel tunnel problem, he could not close them easily. Besides, they hurt. He finally scheduled an operation on his left hand and it was successful. He figured he would then have the same operation done on the other hand.
But a few weeks ago he put his right hand into his mailbox and a wasp stung him.
“It really hurt,” Joe says.
But in a few minutes Joe noticed something. The pain from the sting was going away but so was the pain from the carpel tunnel problem. In no time at all he could move his right hand freely.
Needless to say, he cancelled the second operation.
It turned out that his good fortune — at least the part of healing his right hand if not the sting — was not so strange at all. When he contacted his doctor, he was told it would be best to leave the wasp’s stinger in for three days to get the maximum benefit.
He also told Joe that getting wasps, or bees, to sting a certain portion of the body and relieve pain was a practice still being followed in Amish families west of Dover.
And I happened to talk to Bill Pool of Dover soon after hearing Joe’s story. He said his mother — and this was many years ago — periodically used the stinging treatment to restore movement to her hands.
And further supporting this whole story is the fact that at the time Joe was stung, his wife Ruth was watching a television program, which told of the use of bee stings to cure pain. What she saw was treatment for knee pain.
Who knew?
*****
We were in Cambridge, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, last week and were surprised to run into C.E. “Ned” Blair, who is now the sales manager for the Chesapeake Bay Hyatt Regency, a golf resort, spa and marina on the Choptank River.
Ned was formerly with the Kent County Tourism Corporation in Dover in a similar capacity. But he is still a Delaware resident. Because he and his wife could not sell their house in Milford he drives the 52 miles to Cambridge daily.
The Hyatt Regency is now seven years old and is a venture which includes the state of Maryland because the state owned the land along the river. We enjoyed lunch and walking around the spacious grounds. Ned says he sees people from Delaware from time to time but naturally would like to see even more of them.
My friend and neighbor Joe Malago had been having trouble with both fists. Because of a carpel tunnel problem, he could not close them easily. Besides, they hurt. He finally scheduled an operation on his left hand and it was successful. He figured he would then have the same operation done on the other hand.
But a few weeks ago he put his right hand into his mailbox and a wasp stung him.
“It really hurt,” Joe says.
But in a few minutes Joe noticed something. The pain from the sting was going away but so was the pain from the carpel tunnel problem. In no time at all he could move his right hand freely.
Needless to say, he cancelled the second operation.
It turned out that his good fortune — at least the part of healing his right hand if not the sting — was not so strange at all. When he contacted his doctor, he was told it would be best to leave the wasp’s stinger in for three days to get the maximum benefit.
He also told Joe that getting wasps, or bees, to sting a certain portion of the body and relieve pain was a practice still being followed in Amish families west of Dover.
And I happened to talk to Bill Pool of Dover soon after hearing Joe’s story. He said his mother — and this was many years ago — periodically used the stinging treatment to restore movement to her hands.
And further supporting this whole story is the fact that at the time Joe was stung, his wife Ruth was watching a television program, which told of the use of bee stings to cure pain. What she saw was treatment for knee pain.
Who knew?
*****
We were in Cambridge, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, last week and were surprised to run into C.E. “Ned” Blair, who is now the sales manager for the Chesapeake Bay Hyatt Regency, a golf resort, spa and marina on the Choptank River.
Ned was formerly with the Kent County Tourism Corporation in Dover in a similar capacity. But he is still a Delaware resident. Because he and his wife could not sell their house in Milford he drives the 52 miles to Cambridge daily.
The Hyatt Regency is now seven years old and is a venture which includes the state of Maryland because the state owned the land along the river. We enjoyed lunch and walking around the spacious grounds. Ned says he sees people from Delaware from time to time but naturally would like to see even more of them.
*****
We also visited the little town of Oxford, which is in Maryland’s Talbot County at a site bordering both the Choptank and Tred Avon Rivers.
Oxford marks the year 1683 as its official founding. That was the year the Maryland General Assembly first named Oxford as a seaport. The next year it was designated as one of two ports of entry for the entire Maryland province, leading to speculation that it would become a major city.
That didn’t happen. Less than a thousand people live in the charming tree-lined town now.
Among Oxford’s interesting features is the grave of Col. Tench Tilghman, the aide-de-camp to George Washington who was given the honor of carrying the message of Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
Tilghman dashed the distance to Philadelphia in two days. But when he asked for money to pay his expenses he was told that the Congress had no way to pay him.
He escaped possible jailing for not meeting his debt because enough members of Congress collected money among themselves to give him.
This complete lack of money in the Federal treasury then is especially interesting, and perhaps astounding, when compared to the present state of the nation’s treasury.
A news item the other day told of the man who had devised a hand calculator with 16 places for numerals to enable him to figure calculations in the trillions, a number which has come into frequent daily use as expenses and debts of the country are discussed.
*****
One more mention of our travels.
We were in a restaurant on Tilghman Island recently, also on the Eastern Shore, and struck up a conversation with a couple at the next table.
They lived outside Washington and were familiar with Vice President Joe Biden because they are among the volunteers who contribute their time and funds to help pay for the social events which take place at the U.S. Naval Observatory, which is where the vice president’s official residence is.
The man had been a naval officer, which explains his interest in the observatory.
For some reason, they said, the vice president does not have a budget to pay for these events and consequently relies on the help of this supporting group.
We hadn’t heard of this situation. There’s always something new to learn.
*****
Between Route 13 and parallel State Street in Dover is Lotus Street, which is about four blocks long.
It has attractive medium-size houses with pleasant lawns, trees and bushes.
It also has a large rabbit population.
We often travel on the street and almost always can spot a rabbit or two, or more. And that’s in the front of the houses. How many rabbits are in the back we don’t know.
Just mentioning this bit of wildlife trivia reminds me that I’m pretty sure the “Lotus” name can be traced back to a legend that the first foreign visitors to the area were the Phoenicians, known for sailing far and wide thousands of years ago. The lotus plants in the St. Jones River supposedly came from the Nile River.
*****
Waitress: “So, what’ll it be, mister?
Customer: “Tell you what. I want my eggs hard and burned around the edges. I want my bacon burnt to a crisp, and I want my toast blackened and hard. And I want my coffee bitter. One more thing, when you bring me my food, I want you to yell at me.”
Waitress: “What, are you crazy?”
Customer: “No, I’m just homesick!”
