Honestly you would think the absolutely crucial context around The Lottery, such as its publication date and the highly relevant ethnicity of the author’s children, would be discussed more in classes where people make kids read that story in an attempt to teach them about allegory and symbolism.
I never really took The Lottery seriously. I’d read and loved some of Jackson’s later work, but The Lottery was a relatively early piece of hers, and reading it in 9th grade I’d just taken it for a pretty dismal take on human nature and mob mentality, which are a dime a dozen lbr, and didn’t give it another thought. But I was reading about Shirley Jackson awhile ago (I think I’d just finished We Have Always Lived In The Castle) and I found out that her husband was Jewish, and I was like, wait a minute. Then I checked when The Lottery was published. Then I went and reread the story, and I was like, oh.
The purple-ring topsnail is a medium-sized sea snail with gills and an operculum.This is a sublittoral marine gastropod mollusk in the family Calliostomatidae. This snail lives off of the Pacific coast of North America.his species is fairly omnivorous, feeding seasonally on kelp, sessile fauna like bryozoans, and detritus.
congratulations, you have been forcibly introduced to the African Bullfrog, also
known in pet-owner circles as the Pixie Frog.
look at his little hands!
while they are indeed adorable, the nickname actually derives from the scientific name of the species (pyxicephalus adspersus), and not any positive qualities they possess.
hoo boy they don’t have many of those, lemme tell you
found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pixie Frog lives in wet areas where they eat pretty much anything they can fit into those ginormous mouths. (this includes fish, other frogs, bugs, snakes, lizards, other frogs, rodents, unattentive birds, other frogs, and probably you too if you hold still long enough)
this is a creature born with neither fear nor conscience
and it’s no idle threat either, because Pixie Frogs can grow to 10 inches long, which is well within ‘unreasonably huge’ for an amphibian. also, unlike most frogs, Pixie Frogs have fucking teeth
ALL THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH, MY DEARRRRR
in spite of all of this, Pixie Frogs remain popular pet animals, possibly because they will allow you to pick them up and carry them around like a newborn.
and we can respect that.
she has four of them and they’re named after her grandchildren
just, you know, make sure you count your fingers after you hold one.
Y’all really gonna make me bring back the essential oil discourse over whether or not you can ingest essential oils? Really? Really?
Short answer: no, essential oils are not safe to ingest in any way shape or form. They are for atmospheric diffusing or for topical application via the correct dilution methods via the use of a carrier oil. Water cannot dilute an essential oil. It’s basic chemistry.
Long answer: food extracts and tinctures are not the same thing as essential oils, and no, it doesn’t matter if they’re organic or not. “Therapeutic grade” and “food grade” are non regulated terms used by essential oil companies to sell more products, and are not recognized by health governing bodies, including reputable aromatherapy and holistic schools.
I say this as both a patient and practitioner of holistic therapies with nothing to gain or lose from telling you this. I have no motive other than your well being and that of the people around you. As I have stated, many, many times I merely wish you to be safe. (warning, link contains mention of child death.)
If you reblog this post with some variation of “okay but some oils are safe to ingest”, I am sorry, but you are misinformed. And I suggest you read Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals by Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young, as your education on the subject has been remiss, and I would hate for your to accidentally harm yourself or someone else through good intentions.
A good holistic practitioner does not reject science. Nor do they advocate for the rejection of conventional medicine. It is not your place to replace the doctor. It is your place to support the person through needing care. Remember that.
I always wonder what kind of uninformed nonsense you must be seeing to feel the need to make these PSAs.
It’s usually people seeing my old posts, deciding to come into my inbox and yell at me because they drink essential oils and they’re fine, so I must be a big pharma plant to discredit their lord and master doTerra/young living.
Cause y’know, that seems more plausible than the idea that they might be wrong.
@thebibliosphere do you have any suggestions on credible, science backed resources for those of us who would like to use essential oils safely? I’ve been wanting to work with them but haven’t because I know I’m uninformed and I know how dangerous they can be. Since you clearly know a lot about them is there a book or website you’d trust?
The book I listed up above is pretty much what I consider to be required reading at this point in terms of safety and also the science of essential oils.
It doesn’t give you the “here’s how to make xyz” the same way other books will, and there’s no feel good factors to it, but that’s not what it’s for.
It is there instead to teach you the basic chemistry of essential oils, the safety of using them (including drug interactions, risks to children, toxicology etc) and to give you the means to think critically about whether you should or should not do something.
It’s rather expensive I know (compared to the mass produced feel good aromatherapy guides written by people with as much scientific knowledge and depth as a tea spoon) but it’s a worthwhile investment. I believe you can actually rent it on Amazon, but you can also ask your library to find copies too.
If you’re looking for recipe books, I might be able to rec a few once I get back to my computer and run through my library (same for websites) but it’s worth bearing in mind you will always read something that conflicts with something else because too little research and education has been done on this kind of thing. I have some authors that I really liked, but in recent years they’ve fallen for the big multi-level-marketing lies companies are spewing and are recommending things they’d have never suggested twenty years ago. (And then usually you find out they’re in sponsorship from them and so much begins to make sense.)
The learning and knowledge most of us have is from years of hands on experience, selecting carefully which advice to follow (ie filtering out the bullshit), and learning from others with decades worth of experience.
So really my best advice is to read broadly, (utilize your local libraries!) and learn to differentiate between the snake oil merchants, and those who actually do their research.
A lot of the harmful stuff can be spotted once you know some basic physiology and chemistry.
Things like “water doesn’t dilulte essential oils because while oil is denser than alcohol, it is less dense than water, ergo it floats on top of water* and cannot be diluted by it” should not be news to people in this field, but unfortunately it is.
*which is how people get chemical burns from dropping non diluted essential oils into their bathtub. The essential oils literally create a film on top of the water, which then comes into contact with the skin.
If this does happen to you, flushing with water might reduce the pain but it won’t get the oil off your skin. Grab a carrier oil (jojoba, coconut, vegetable glycerin, heck even plain old olive oil) and gently swipe liberal amounts of it over the affected area to dilute the molecules further. THEN flush with water.
Now imagine how dangerous it is to get a chemical burn in your esophagus that can’t be diluted by drinking more water. And you’ll understand why I flip my lid when people advocate drinking them.
And no that doesn’t mean you should dilute them with olive oil and drink them either. Use a food extract or tincture instead, they’re designed to be absorbed by the body, and have been distilled for their INTERNAL health properties. Essential oils are distilled for EXTERNAL use.
Essential oils are GRAS chemicals and are intact used for ingestion, however in these instances they are (1) heavily diluted and (2) mixed with fats or fat substitutes.
“Generally Recognized As Safe” however also comes with the caveat of “we don’t really know too much about this, so used correctly this is likely safe” which multi-level-marketing companies have taken and twisted into “just drink some oils sweeties, it’s super healthy for you and totally safe!”
Which is NOT the correct use of them.
Heck, some people even get esophagus burns from peppermint oil capsules—widely used and effective in the treatment of IBS—because the capsule casing doesn’t remain intact until it reaches the gut. (And those burns suuuuck. I speak from first hand experience.)
Which is why I absolutely implore people to not drink essential oils in their water or use them to flavor things (extracts are right there in the grocery aisle, and usually about a third the price) because people do not seem to understand the risk they are taking. They’ve seen the GRAS disclaimer and think it’s harmless, and that’s how you end up with things like internal burns, rapid onset renal failure, sick pets and dead children.
GRAS is not a green light, it’s the amber, and you don’t know if it’s about to turn red or green and it’s better to slow down and assess your situation before plowing on into something you’re not fully prepared to deal with.
Which is why I also urge people find a certified herbalist or functional doctor if this is something they want to pursue because my god, do the majority of people not know what they’re getting into. Heck, I’ve been doing this for over 15 years and I don’t proclaim to know everything. If anything the only thing I’m profoundly aware of is just how much I don’t know.
But I know enough not to kill someone, and that’s a good place to start.
but i know enough
not to kill someone and that’s
a good place to start
^Haiku^bot^9. I detect haikus with 5-7-5 format. Sometimes I make mistakes.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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