The Wisdom of the Ancients

Just don't tell my grandma I referred to her as ancient...

In case you haven't noticed, it's hot. Well, here at least it's hot. I don't have AC in my home, and in my desperation I decided to try on old trick my grandma used in her home.

Wet bedsheets.

The trick is that by hanging wet bedsheets around the house in areas of air circulation (like a fan) you can cool the house. Last week I tried it, and it worked. The world outside rose to a hell-blasting 98 degrees, but inside it stayed perfectly even at 80. I was impressed. Grandma was right.

I was reminded of my roses. About a month or so ago, I bought some anti-fungus spray to treat them for powdery mildew. The spray cost a fortune and didn't even last long enough to treat all my plants. In frustration, I turned to a garden tips book that gave me an old, very simple concoction to use: 2 teaspoons baking soda, 2 quarts water, 1/2 teaspoon liquid dish soap. It worked just as well as the expensive stuff and cost a fraction less.

My philosophy professor used to rail against what he called the snobbery of modernism--that we "moderns" have a disdain for anything that's old. We are progressive, modern snobbery says, and the past is backwards. We know better, modern snobbery says, and the ancients were ignorant.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong!" my professor would have exclaimed, and he would have smacked the podium if the fire in his belly was burning particularly hot that day. His campaign against such snobbery was one of his touchstones in every philosophy course I took with him. I suppose he was trying to pound a little sense into as many freshman undergrads as he could.

Wet bedsheets. Baking soda, water, and liquid soap. Certainly worked better and cheaper than modern progressive techniques.

I think my philosophy professor would be proud of my very un-modern approach at tackling these problems. I wonder if he'd give me extra credit...