Dandelions Really Do Cure (Most) Warts

(Reclaimed from Bubblews. Image from Krosseel at Morguefile: http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/k/kevinrosseel/preview/fldr_2008_11_28/file000168722393.jpg.)

Yes, I know that a lot of cheap and easy "wart cures" have been reported, sometimes in good faith, when if they worked it was because warts tend to come and go all by themselves. There are different kinds of warts, caused by different viruses. Skin tags, hematomas, plantar warts, and the unmentionable kinds of warts associated with cancer, are caused by different viruses than ordinary warts. If a patient still harbors the virus, warts will probably come back even after being surgically removed. So it's good not to have too much faith in the power of dandelion juice to remove warts.

That said: I've removed several skin warts from several people with dandelion juice. (Not hematomas, though. I've seen hematomas shrink slightly, and temporarily, after this treatment had been repeated for a week. I've not seen a hematoma disappear completely without surgery.) Some people's warts came back later that summer; some people remained wart-free for years. 

Find a long-stemmed dandelion blossom, preferably on someone's lawn where it's not wanted, preferably when it has gone or is about to go to seed. Pick it near its base. Rinse the stem with water if you're concerned about contamination. Crush the stem between your finger and the wart. Rub the plant juices into the wart, then repeat further up the stem. Avoid scratching or squeezing the skin; let the astringent substances in the plant juice do all the work. If you are the owner of the wart you may, or may not, notice a very faint, not painful, sort of tingling. Some kinds of warty growths will pop off right away, some will flake off within a few hours, and plantar warts (on the sole of the foot) may not respond until this treatment has been repeated two or three times. 

Even if it doesn't work, this treatment is safe and free of charge; somebody may even thank you for using up the dandelion.

(Edit: Finding this Morguefile photo reminded me that there's more than one species in the dandelion family. In the U.S. "dandelion" always means Taraxacum officinale. I have no idea what medicinal value other flower species in this family might have.)

Have you used this or some other traditional "cure" for skin warts? What were the results?

(Reclaimed from Bubblews. Image of a Persa azul cat from Ban7 at Morguefile.)

Thanks to Cynthianne 's www.bubblews.com/news/2180419-the-cat-that-wasn039t-there-but-was for suggesting this:

Years ago I took a job helping remodel an old farmhouse. During the second month I worked there, people started talking about having seen a cat somewhere around the place. They couldn't agree on anything about the cat. Big or small? Manx or Persian? Black or gray?

There was another nice, non-threatening, cat-loving woman on the crew. She and I called for a cat and set out food for a cat from time to time. Neither of us ever saw a cat, or any sign that one existed. I began to wonder if the guys were making up this cat story.

My car pool buddy on this job was the big, loud man who was using a bulldozer to reclaim the pond that had slowly turned into a marsh. When he started claiming to have seen "our mythical cat," I was pretty sure the guys were just kidding about this cat.

Then one day when he and I were there alone, he came up to me and almost whispered, "Look in the barn." (I wouldn't have been there alone with this guy if I hadn't felt sure that, if he ever said something like that, there would actually be something worth looking at in the barn.) I looked inside the barn, and there was the cat. She was half Manx and half Persian, the smoky shade of gray cat fanciers call blue, very long thick fluffy fur and a two-inch stub of a tail. Very pretty seen from in front, very comical from behind. She must have been five or six months old.

The Bulldozer Man put his arm around my shoulder as he called this cat. Sure enough, she came to us. Then he backed away and said, "See if she'll let you pet her," and sure enough she would. After seeing that I was Her Human's friend, that cat would come when I called. After a few days she'd even let me pick her up. But the other woman, who did not live in a Cat Sanctuary and whose husband would not have wanted her to get that close to another man, never saw the gray cat. She must have been someone's pet at some time in her short life, but she was wild by now.

A few weeks passed, and I finally met the gray cat's sister, who was black and had no tail at all. The black cat went to me and let me pet her, too, but after losing her fear of me she started nipping me when I wasn't even petting her. Not pet material. The Bulldozer Man had seen the black cat several times but never been allowed to touch her. Well, we had heard that Manx cats bond with only one human per cat, and although the gray cat was friendly to me she preferred him.

Anyway the house had been sold, and the buyers didn't want feral Manx cats, so we rescued the gray cat...and that was Graybelle, the Queen of the Cat Sanctuary for the next six months. She was a lovable cat, partly because she always seemed to remember which human she really liked first.

Moral: if you have a "ghost cat," "now you see it, now you don't," keep watching...it just might be your next pet!

How Many Times a Day Do You Eat?

(Reclaimed from Bubblews.)

Some diet books suggest that everyone should eat three, five, or even seven micro-meals per day. They call it grazing and say it tends to boost your metabolism, especially if the micro-meals consist of non-fattening foods.

I've never had much luck with this. The non-fattening nibbles weren't very satisfying, and if I had anything else at all to do I didn't want to keep interrupting what I was doing to get up and fix another snack. Seven peanuts on a celery stick? Who goes to the kitchen just for that?

I think these diet books were written in aid of otherwise unemployed personal chefs, who want to be paid just to hang out in people's kitchens preparing all these micro-meals. (The chefs, like people who work in food factories, are probably bored to the point of pain by the things they cook all day, so maybe they don't get fat either. I hope not.)

While married my husband and I used to try to manage three meals a day, but most days we actually ate just two.

Now that I usually cook alone, I usually eat one real meal per day, and if I think about it I might squeeze in a snack--probably a piece of fruit, bag of chips, or handful of nuts, but nothing that requires time and forethought.

How often do you eat?

(Photo from Quicksandala at Morguefile.com.)