powder

Sionnach, it's not fair that you keep posting the Best Comments Ever. :) And this is going on my Conversations list...

Sir yes sir!

Ummm, you can stop there, U.

I recently discovered Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder. I was fully prepared for disgust, but actually it's quite mentholly. Makes your feet all cold and tingly, and nice-smelling. I can't wait to cover my feet in it again tonight.

Have I shared too much?

Yikes.

C_b, I know a few people who take BC Powder that way. Eeew.

Now, sionnach--let's not cast aspersions about one's orificial preferences.

There do appear to be certain well-defined national preferences about the way to take one's medicine. For instance, Germans have a fondness for intranasal administration, that is, they like to snort their drugs. The French, in contrast, have a certain penchant for suppositories.

Somehow this knowledge makes one view the Franco-Prussian war in an entirely new light.

There's another discussion about "take a powder" (I think) on my list Powder Fun. At least I remember it that way (though haven't looked lately) because I'd never heard it before.

Also, skipvia, I noticed the customer loyalty of BC Powder, but I also heard of lots of people who don't even put it in water--they just sprinkle it into their mouths. This grosses me out.

That's hilarious skipvia. I really liked this one: "We’ve been friends since 1978, and we’ve been through a whole lot of BC’s together."

I remember doing some interpreting work for a doctor who in turn had spent a lot of time in India. He told me, "You can prescribe pills for Indians, but there's no point. They'll just take them home and grind them into powders anyway."

Bilby: BC Powder is still a widely available pain remedy in the South. You open the little envelope, pour the powder into water, and drink it down. I suppose it's little more than crushed aspirin, but it has a certain cachet among Southerners, for some reason.

Your comment got me to thinking about BC, so I did a quick Google search. The story of BC Powder is here if you're interested. The user testimonials under The Faces of BC are priceless...

"take a powder"--that's just plain weird!

Weren't most medicines originally powders before they were - ie. in modern times - tablets, capsules, etc.?

Captured at Yorktown, "70 barrels powder," meaning gunpowder, in addition to all the other loot. (Salem, Mass. Gazette, November 15, 1781)

c_b, can you change your name to powder_bear?

No, I haven't. I'll try to remember to look it up in the OED when I have a chance. Interesting...

I read somewhere that "take a powder" is thought to come from a use of the word powder as "a sudden or frantic rush." Have you seen that anywhere, Powder Bear?

Think this word is cool? So do I. See?

Well, "keep your powder dry" makes sense to me, particularly (as I said) in the context of work. But "take a powder"--that's just plain weird!

Or "keep your powder dry."

In the context of my work, this usually means gunpowder. Great word though. I love the saying "take a powder."

Powder: Try running out into a grassy field on a stormy day, yelling this at the top of your lungs.