Word: aphrodisiac
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Vermouth is a tawny mixture of herbs and fermented grape juice whose origins are as murky as Louisiana Snake Oil.* Ancient Romans gulped vermouth as a surefire aphrodisiac, while as late as 1720, Frenchmen celebrated it as a preventive against plague. Last week, John L. Tribuno, head of Vermouth Industries of America, biggest domestic producer, announced that the ancient elixir was breaking all records in the U.S., but for a 20th century reason: the rise of the dry martini as the great U.S. national cocktail...
...trouble among dwindling breeds was almost always man, and that there was generally some factor involved besides mere competition for land and food. Rhinos, for instance, are persistently hunted all over Southeast Asia because they are believed to have medicinal value. The Chinese consider powdered rhinoceros horn a powerful aphrodisiac (it is not), and will pay $2,500 for a single horn. Other parts of the animal, too have honored places in the Asian pharmacopoeia. Cups made of rhino horn detect poison by shattering to bits or by making the poison bubble. Rhino shin is good for leg trouble...
...ancients believed, says Dr. Philip, that mashed ticks were a useful aphrodisiac, and Pliny the Elder recommended tick blood as a depilatory and as a curative ointment. There may be something to this. Recent tick-workers have shown that ticks contain an antibiotic that inhibits the growth of many bacteria...
...Brooklyn housewife, affronted by such unorthodox sentiments, sued successfully to bar Bertrand Russell from his appointment to teach mathematics and logic at the College of the City of New York. In a melodramatic orgy of name-calling, his writings were attacked as "lecherous, salacious, libidinous, lustful, venerous, erotomaniac, aphrodisiac, atheistic, irreverent, narrow-minded, untruthful and bereft of moral fiber." Ten years later, the Nobel Prize Committee handed down a dissenting opinion by giving him its 1950 award for literature...
...tone down, Medicine Man LeBlanc spent millions of dollars in advertising to imply that his mixture of B vitamins, minerals and honey, all bathed in alcohol, would cure almost everything. He also has a corps of gagsters turning out jingles and jokes insinuating that Hadacol is an aphrodisiac. In dry southern states, Hadacol has another virtue; its 24-proof alcoholic content makes it just the thing for binges. Medicine Man LeBlanc, who prefers straight bourbon himself, can hardly understand this last fact because, he says, Hadacol "tastes so bad I don't see how anybody could drink enough...