Word: magnesia
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...over 80% of the patients chancing the physician's skills have little more wrong with them than what a considerate spouse, a kindly bartender or a hefty raise in salary couldn't cure." For most of the rest, he would prescribe nothing more exotic than milk of magnesia, aspirin, an ice bag or Preparation...
...Washington named Richard Smith devised a simple formula for ensuring the survival of history-making newsprint. His innovation is ripe for use now. The recipe, which is meant solely for printed matter, not handwritten letters, reads like a home remedy for a Watergate-induced headache: dissolve a milk of magnesia tablet in a quart of club soda and chill the solution overnight. Then pour it into a pan or tray large enough to accommodate a flattened newspaper, soak the newspaper for an hour...
...that elementary process the acidic decomposition that slowly destroys the cellulose fibers in paper is arrested. Thus most of today's paper, which normally lasts from 50 to 100 years, can, with repeated soakings in the milk of magnesia solution at 50-year intervals, be made to last up to 200 years longer. Shake well before using...
...Magnesia & Matzo. According to the few doctors who have studied the subject, the craving for laundry starch is an offshoot of the clay-eating habit still prevalent among some Southern Negroes. Those who migrate North sometimes receive packages of clay (known as "Mississippi Mud" in Los Angeles) mailed by friends back home, but most switch to laundry starch, which is easier to obtain and apparently satisfies the same hunger...
Across the country, the preferred brand is Argo Gloss Starch, available in either the economy-size blue box at 19? or the handy red box at 11?. Both contain chewy lumps that taste, according to one gourmet, like "a cross between milk of magnesia and matzo. The texture is that of an after-dinner mint." Like peanuts, one handful leads to another. "After a box of it," said one woman, "my throat gets kind of sticky, so I go and get a big glass of ice water. Then I get a powerful desire for more." Some enthusiasts spice laundry starch...