The other day my mother gave me the following article that she clipped from the Rice Lake Early Bird, a local newspaper out here in our little spot on Planet Wisconsin, dated June 22, 2003. Good thing I don't have a cold. But even if I did, I can assure you that I would not kiss one of those mice in my basement.

Pliny The Elder, the naturalist who was asphyxiated in the A.D. eruption of Vesuvius, prescribed the following treatment for a cold: "kiss the hairy muzzle of a mouse."

This article was released exactly one week after my blog (posted June 13th) which made a reference (a fictitious creation...or at least so I thought at the time) to Pliny The Elder in regards to Pliny The Younger mentioned in the Cliche of the Day. I figured at the time that I was pretty safe inventing a Pliny The Elder since there indeed was a Pliny The Younger. It was nice to have an article which validated my "inventiveness".

Cliche of the Day

Eternal Verities, The. Enduring principles; something that is supposed to be regarded as important because and authority says it is. John Locke gave the non-sardonic version in Latin in 1681, writing in his Journal: "our knowledg of generall things are eternae veritates and depend not upon the existence or accidents of things...."