I had a sore throat. When Aldous noticed it, his face lit up. He was dying to cure me. He knew what to do. Would I accept his therapy? How could I turn down a good friend\u2019s therapy?<\/p>\n
He proposed to prepare some gargling mixture for me. I was relieved to hear \u201cgargling\u201d, because that\u2019s different from \u201cswallowing\u201d. Also I was naively thinking of taking it home and then to do with it as I pleased. Not so Aldous. He made sure. He returned from his house \u2013 I was staying by their swimming pool where my daughter was enjoying herself \u2013 with a glass containing an opaque mixture. I had to use it in his presence! Also it turned out that I had to gargle first and then\u2026swallow the liquid! I kept smiling while enquiring what the components of the mixture were. I felt that since I was to take it, I was entitled to know. He as a scientist should have a lot of sympathy with my request. He, too, kept smiling, not saying a word.<\/p>\n
I looked back at him, waiting. His wife was getting uncomfortable. She said in a slightly reproachful tone: \u201cMaybe there is a bit of Zn in it\u201d meaning that I should have known. I suppose I should. I inquired about a possible disinfectant and he said: \u201cThere might be a bit of sodium in it\u2026\u201d, smiling expectantly all the while. I decided I didn\u2019t want to hurt his feelings and demonstrated my ability to gargle. My daughter thought I was very good at that. Then I swallowed it as told. I repeated this several times until the glass was empty. I remarked that after a while I had tasted some sort of bitterness. Zn no doubt.<\/p>\n
Aldous said this was very interesting. He thought to himself that, maybe, I wasn\u2019t Zn deficient after all \u2013 I knew he had considered this as an obvious possibility \u2013 and said aloud that my taste buds had been activated through the mixture. Perhaps this is a scientifically sound statement \u2013 he should know being the expert. Anyway, I had the impression that the lubrication did my throat good and he was pleased to notice an immediate effect. Next day I was much better which he noted with great satisfaction. Of course, he knew why, whereas I didn\u2019t. He offered me another gargle \u2013 I don\u2019t know whether jokingly or seriously \u2013 which I turned down jokingly.<\/p>\n
I knew he had been worried about my state of health. I lost a little weight recently and was feeling tired. I couldn\u2019t hide it from him and couldn\u2019t very well tell him the reason for it either. He would have been shocked!! I looked a bit the \u201canorexic\u201d way, I suppose, and you know what the remedy for that is. Zn! Of course, when you\u2019re Zn deficient you\u2019re not supposed to taste it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a sore throat. When Aldous noticed it, his face lit up. He was dying to cure me. He knew what to do. Would I accept his therapy? How could I turn down a good friend\u2019s therapy? He proposed to prepare some gargling mixture for me. I was relieved to hear \u201cgargling\u201d, because that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-aloud"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t