Your greatest tool as a writer is the ability to seek out the odd and absurd. Great stories don’t come from an ordinary life, but the extraordinary things that happen yet seem like nothing at the time.
This weekend a combination of that “toe tucking” commercial and someone’s comment had me surfing the Web. Don’t ask why, something clicked. It sent the dangerous part of my mind crawling and oddity it did find.
A short article from Consumer Reports had a comment which should have investors quaking in their boots. Here is a quote from the end of the article.
The good news is that an inexpensive remedy might already be in most people’s medicine cabinets. Small studies suggest that the medicated chest rub, such as Vaporub, might knock out the fungus in up to 38% of people. Larger studies are needed to confirm it helps, but it’s not expected to have any serious side effects.
The article is only a handful of paragraphs but it is a shocker. The expensive treatments help less than 20% of cases. I currently have no idea what Vaporub costs now, but seem to remember it was priced like branded aspirin and other “common” remedies. When word of this gets out the makers of high priced products ought to see their sales plummet.
Your writer’s mind should be asking “who actually tried this?” Granted it is no where near the question of “who first thought of mashing grapes, pouring the result along with other things into a barrel to let ferment then strain and drink the results?” but a writer’s mind should ask. Perhaps ask it while drinking the results of the second question here?