Today's lesson, children...

Nah, it's nothing deep and meaningful. Too hot for that.

Today's lesson concerns the phrase "hair of the dog", as when one has a hangover and a well-meaning friend suggests that one take another drink (usually a Bloody Mary, a beverage, in my opinion, much better with the vodka served frozen and separately) in order to cure the condition. At the time, one generally doesn't question the usage, but later one may think, "What dog?"

The answer is the Aesclepian dog. You know, the dog that is often shown lying at the feet of Aesclepius. He (the dog...well, Aesclepius too, but that's another story) was supposedly magickal, and if one took a hair from his coat and brewed it into a potion, it would cure illnesses. After a while (by this point, about 300 B.C.E.), there were often dogs kept in aesclepieions - think clinics or hospitals - and rumor had it that if the dogs would lick a person's wound, the wound would heal.

OK, so Wikipedia doesn't agree with me, citing something about rabies and Shakespeare, but I'm sticking by my original answer.

The other lesson for our interested student has to do with shared cultural heritage, or why we should spend time with people of our own age- and other generalized brackets. The other day it was remarked that roses that looked very sick, one even thought dead, had healed right up when watered. I jokingly remarked "just call me The Seventh Son."

*cricket cricket*

"You know, 'Heal the sick! Raise the dead! Make the little women go out of...." a heh..ehe.

*blink*

Never mind.

That's all for today, kids.

Be well.