Let me not obfuscate this issue: I'm really, really sick. Tessa led me to bed a few minutes ago while I was shaking from a fever/chills combo that harkens back to the days of youth, when my mom would put me to sleep with a vaporizer and a spoonful of Dr. Barthel's magic cherry cough syrup. That syrup came in a bottle no doubt manufactured in the 1880s, and the label was typewritten and glued with mucilage:
COUGH SYRUP
Dr. Barthel
If I didn't know Dr. Barthel was a strict Mormon, I'd suspect opiates, LSD and "eyes of newt" in there, because nothing came close to the sleep of a hundred virgins offered by this elixir.
Oh how I wish we still had that bottle somewhere. Dr. Barthel, where have you gone? I mean, I know how you died, but... metaphorically?
Posted by at November 1, 2002 08:34 PM