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Finally! No Anti-Perspirants Needed!!!!

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

We have been working on this problem for a couple years. How to live in polite society without using either deodorant or anti-perspirants. We are convinced that the way many anti-perspirants work, using aluminum to stop your pores to prevent you sweating and therefore to keep you smell- free is bad for your health.

From what we’ve read, there seems to be a growing body of research connecting aluminum as one of the culprits in Alzheimers. It certainly would explain the incredible rise in this disease – looking at the time period from the mid-1950’s when it became fashionable to give a bride and groom a set of aluminum pots as a wedding present. I can remember those shiny pots displayed prominently on the gift table and everyone just ooohing and ahhing over them – and then came the vicious rise of Alzheimer’s. There is some admission of that – although through the back door – by the companies which manufacture these pots because they are now marketing pots as having an aluminum “center” fully enclosed rather than being all aluminum.

Trying to get rid of body odor without using either deodorant or anti-perspirants has been a tough experiment. We have tried everything we heard from everyone who wrote to or called us and nothing worked over the long haul – (read: playing games, hiking, walking fast, high stress situations, etc.).

We tried bathing two and three times a day. That worked, sort of, but only if you engaged in no strenuous activity, kept yourself stress free, etc. If you didn’t, in a couple hours you began to smell as though you hadn’t bathed for days.

We also tried massaging Olive Oil under the arm pits. Then we tried Avocado oil under the arm pits. And then we added different essential oils after rubbing in the Olive Oil and we tried essential oils without rubbing in the different oils putting the essential oils directly on the skin. All of our trials broke down after a short period of time and your friends had to be very forgiving to stay around you for even five minutes.

While watching one of the Dr. Oz television show segments, we discovered the answer AND IT WORKS!!! Organic Apple Cider Vinegar splashed under your arms after you come out of the shower or the tub. It works totally. Several of us have been using it for a while now, including a few of you who contacted us after our blogs on going deodorant or anti-perspirant free. We have all had good results. In addition, I also splashed the organic apple cider vinegar on my face after putting on Avocado Oil and the finish was spectacular. If you try this, be super careful of your eyes. I missed my face and my eyes burned something fierce. That didn’t stop me from continuing to try this because the results were spectacular.

I remember a book that I used to swear by when in my 20’s and 30’s and for reasons I don’t remember just lost track of it. I had a hard time keeping a copy of the book in my library because every time someone saw it they had to have it so I kept buying and re-buying the book just to keep it around. Today, I don’t even remember the books title. It was written by a man (I think) who was an apple cider fanatic. He talked about the old way of doing things and much of his life centered around this product which he claimed was the secret to good health and long life.

During that time frame, I would alternate between squeezing a lemon into a little warm water in the mornings as my first drink of the day with a little organic apple cider vinegar in water as my first drink of the day. With the organic apple cider vinegar I always felt super clean. With the lemons I felt as though I was burning every germ out of my digestive tract.

I also remember, when douching was popular among women. Many women used apple cider vinegar in their douch bags instead of the commercial preparations. So that has been around for many uses for generations. You could tell the women who used the commercial preparations because they smelled like a hospital for hours.

My great-grandmother used it to clean her house along with Olive Oil and that was all she used. She also used it on herself in her bath and all over. She did the same thing with Olive Oil. She didn’t smell of apple cider vinegar, but her house had a very distinctive odor – however, she also didn’t have mold, mildew, bugs, etc. Those insects couldn’t live in her house after that constant onslaught of natural germ killer. That has to be why organic apple cider vinegar works so well to keep you body odor free. No germs left to eat the sweat and let out those horrible odors for others to smell.

Try it and let us know your resuts! Also let me know if you think of the name of the book I’ve lost.

We had more response from our blogs on trying to use something other than deodorants and anti-perspirants than anything else so we know how most of you are trying to live and hope we contribute a little bit to a healthier lifestyle.

I am deligthed with the result. Not only because I don’t smell anymore, but especially because I feel so clean after I’ve splashed my underarms with organic apple cider vinegar. That loud sigh of relief you hear is coming from my friends who have been most tolerant and I thank them for their patience and perseverance. Now, I know my really true friends! The rest of you were fair-weather friends for not being able to tolerate a little discomfort. Look at the results! Our health improvement and greater longevity will be the stuff of legend:)

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Tags: Anti-Perspirants, Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, Deodorant
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, cancer, Health, Health and Beauty, Making Connections | Comments Off on Finally! No Anti-Perspirants Needed!!!!

The New Hampshire Primary, etc.

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

I know there are discussions going on around the Bettina Network about the Republican Primary. That is all you can get when you turn on the news, but I see almost no one has sent in their breakfast discussion as a blog, probably because they have a strong religious component and none of us wants to be thought of as bigots -religious or otherwise, true or false. Well, I guess I will just have to risk folks knowing we take in all views from wherever and give the freedom of discussion to all our guests without judgment. So my breakfast table talk has to be about the breakfast we just had from which I am still trying to recover. The house is super clean after one of these discussions because cleaning helps me think and sort out – maybe this writing will substitute, it is certainly easier on the body.

We had an unusual assortment of people because one guest invited a couple friends from the area. A bonus when you stay in a Bettina home.

The breakfast was all about the Republican primary. After the laughter at what is going on stopped, we turned to the more serious side of the race.

It started with a guests’ comment on race, actually – the heavy racist overtones to Mitt Romney’s latest television ad about the race being about the soul of America and he goes downhill from there. The interesting thing about racism – those engaged in that emotion generally can’t see their own failings, but that ad was pretty specific. No media got it. I guess you had to have been involved in politics when race was the prevailing issue which made or broke politicians to get the really extreme racism and almost Nazi-like threat Romney is making in that advertisement, if Obama continues in office. I must admit, I had to watch television to take another look at the ad and with that background, the racism jumped right out of the ad in my face. I have much to learn.

From race we turned to religion. I am sure no one at the table would have that conversation anyplace else except in a Bettina Network home.

One guest started it with a story about a friend of hers who was interested in the Mormon Church and started to attend. The guest was Caucasian, her friend was African American and single – no, not gay single, but single-by-life-circumstances.

After a few weeks of going to the particular Mormon Church she was attending, they apparently saw she was seriously interested. They talked to her about her interest and about becoming a member of the Church. Their suggestion – strong suggestion was that she not return to their Church – a white, young professional, couples gathering with lots of small children – and told her to go to another Church – still Mormon, but in a different part of town with a different congregational make-up. More diverse with lots more single people. When she checked it out, there were lots of African-Americans. She got the message and turned her attention elsewhere. Amazingly, what she took away from that encounter was not the Mormon’s racism, but their social engineering. They were telling her what to do in no uncertain terms and she had no choice. It was clearly, from her encounter, not racism, but it was based on their belief that a single African American woman would be more comfortable in a Church with single African Americans along with other minority members – some young professionals with young children, but minorities just the same.

The breakfast conversation moved from there to the autobiographies of Romney, his father and others in which they were clearly told what to do by their Elders and they saw it as their duty to do just that. Someone suggested the reason Romney was born in Mexico was because his father had been sent there by the Mormon Church with much push back on his part, but he went nevertheless because he saw it as his duty to do what his Church told him to do with minimum push back.

Given that background up came the name of Huntsman with the conjecture as to why he decided to run. He clearly was not going to run and then all of a sudden, fresh from an appointment by the Obama administration to China, he announces his intention to join the race. Looking at his strategy since he entered it looked as though he had been ordered into the race by his Elders in the Church rather than joining the race totally of his own volition. For one thing – it really looks like a gross ethical violation, unusual for Huntsman – and the strategies of both Romney and Huntsman say some greater power was moving them towards the goal of a Mormon president of the U. S. A. and that greater power was not God, but gods – I loved that comment and just had to include it.

To say that almost wiped me out as I sat quietly listening to this is an understatement.

The discussion went on to really outline the difference in what would happen in such a circumstance if Romney were the only Mormon in the race as opposed to two Mormons running for the Republican nomination. There was a lot of discussion as to why a minority or woman running for an office for the first time would have a much easier time if there were two running instead of just one.

There was also a lot of discussion about what happened in Massachusetts when Romney ran for the Senate and almost beat Kennedy and then ran successfully for the Governorship. The discussion was about Romney allegedly using the Church records to push his campaign instead of keeping a distance considering that a conflict of Church and State. Some of that conflict apparently made the papers in Massachusetts.

This discussion was not about Romney or Huntsman using the Church records with the computerized colleciton of information about everyone in the world who the Mormons visit on a regular basis and update their computer records as their young missionaries call on you – but about the Mormon Church overseeing the Romney campaign and introducing Huntsman either with his agreement or with some pullback on his part – to insure the victory of one of their own.

I know the computer part is true – about the Mormons collecting information from their missionaries and keeping those recods computerized for future proselytizing – I had not thought before of the efficacy of such a collection being used to further the political ambitions of the Mormon Church.

Someone at the table remembered the Senate Campaign of Romney against Kennedy and what happened when Kennedy tried to raise the issue of religion against Romney. There was an immediate media ourcry about how the Kennedy’s were in the same position when Jack Kennedy ran for president so Kennedy should just keep quiet. The person raising that bit of history was still upset about that, but not because the media quieted the religious issue, but because they would not report on what Kennedy was saying – which was that there is a difference between a person who is a member of a religion – sitting in the pews – running for a public office and someone who is a Bishop in his denomination running for office without making that distinction clear with the public backing him not knowing of his official Church position – sort of like an Archbisop of the Catholic Church running for office and hiding his official position with the Church. The issues then being raised take on a very different look.

The Bishop in a denomination has declared his belief in everything for which the Church stands. A person in the pew can have theological differences with his denomination and is free to make his own decisions even when they conflict, theologically and otherwise with his Church’s teachings and beliefs.

Ed.Note: This part of the conversation came up because Romney is/was a Bishop in the Mormon Church. We had a couple questions after the blog published about this which is why this note is being added.

If that person in the pews is running for public office, he can make decisions which differ from the theological beliefs of his denomination – he might get push back and heavy push back sometimes from his denomination, but the Bishop would not be able to make decisions which differed from his denominations theological belief system, he has taken an oath, vow, whatever to uphold and follow all of his Church’s beliefs.

That was a discussion that needed to be held when Romney ran for the Senate and that did not happen. That is still a discussion that needs to be held and could be aired without religions bigotry if we had the right kind of media – which we do not. A media beholden to advertisers who can give and take away would be hard put to report on such issues without their bias showing in their reporting – which is the disgrace of one of our most powerful institutions.

WOW! I don’t believe I got through all of that and I hope you publish this blog without my name attached. You take the heat and I will still send you breakfast table talk.

Ed Note: A guest at a Bettina home, who stayed a couple years ago, called us about the blog and said that Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico, not Mitt Romney. We would like to correct that mis-statement. She went on to say that about 130 years ago Romney’s great grandfather – Miles Parker Romney and others – fled to Mexico from Utah. Miles had four wives and they were running from the anti-polygamy laws passed earlier making multiple marriages a felony. Miles’ fathers had 12 wives.. The Romney family returned to the U. S. and lived in Michigan where Mitt Romney was born.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Mitt Romney, politics
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Making Connections | Comments Off on The New Hampshire Primary, etc.

A CALL TO ACTION

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

There are larger and larger pockets of people, organizations, families who are interested in their health – outside the so-called healthcare industry – and who are very disenchanted with the way the health of the average world citizen is being negatively affected by the joining forces of the technology industry, the food processing industry and big Pharma along with other medical research groups working together in their research labs looking for ‘greater’ discoveries for their mutual benefit while being blind, deaf and dumb to the health and well being of the rest of the world (including themselves and their progeny). There is no attention within these groups as to what affect their developments and research will have on the rest of us. We are interconnected in this world and it is time for these research groups to develop a model which acknowledges that and moves away from the model which allows their research scientists to wear blinders when developing their products and new breakthroughs.

There are drugs, protoccols, research going on to “treat” diseases which were non-existent just a generation ago.

I have talked with many people around the breakfast table about these issues – different serendipitously convened people with much the same conversation. This breakfast was special because it ended with a call to action. Hopefully, you will begin to hear from those who were around that table, their friends, relatives and all who they can enlist in this small attempt by one breakfast group to bring about change.

The breakfast ended – after much discussion about “organics,” “drug”, “genetic research”, “medical marijuana”, “acetominophen” and on and on – with a challenge to the few of us around that table to spread the word. We would like to see at least 25% of the monies spent on medical research – drug research, genetic research, new product research of any kind, all of it – spent on prevention and an understanding of how the results of all research will affect human beings – humanity – the animals, plants and humans who live on this planet.

Research to go into what is causing this huge disease epidemic in the world today. One which is spreading and will soon affect everyone in every country. Research on what is the best way to live avoiding the degeneration happening in our society from the processed foods, the poor environment, the new technologies which have serious health implications for all of us without our knowledge and more.

How are we going to put this into affect? We don’t know! We didn’t leave the breakfast table with a plan other than we would use our lives, work, friends, family, acquaintances, to spread that word and for each of us to do what we could where we were. My first action is to send you this blog from breakfast, hope you publish it and hope it strikes a nerve worldwide to start this movement.

NO COMPANY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO ANY HEALTH or MEDICAL or DISEASE or NEW PRODUCT RESEARCH UNLESS TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THE MONIES AND RESOURCES THEY SPEND ON THAT RESEARCH GOES INTO RESEARCH WHICH WILL KNOW HOW WHATEVER THEY ARE DOING WILL HELP TO PREVENT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE HUMAN RACE AS WE MOVE FASTER INTO A DISEASE RIDDEN SOCIETY.

Our conclusion was that we don’t need more drugs developed or more protoccols or more supposed responses to a ‘genetic’ deficiency causing bad health, new technology or other new products until we know their affect on the planet and it is positive with no side-affect. We need much more prevention research. Prevention, which will reach into all parts of the world to stop whatever is causing this incredible epidemic from which we all suffer.

Soon, the older people who lived and grew up in a society where the diseases and degenerative health we suffer from today as a general society was rare. People lived longer and healthier lives – goodness, scientific heresy – we were also tired of statistics being taken out of context to attempt to smooth over and cast in a different more acceptable light the reality of where we are all headed and that is not into a gloruous world of longer lived people who are happy and disease free. We are moving into a world where people live shorter lives, are miserable most of the time and don’t know why there are such growing numbers of people who can’t sleep, etc.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, prevent obesity
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, cancer, Growing Old, Health, Making Connections | Comments Off on A CALL TO ACTION

How is Your Muffin Top?

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

“Muffin top” is a fairly new word in the lexicon of things wrong with a woman’s body and a fairly new concept in what needs to be worked on and “fixed”. A new word/phrase coined by those who are in the business of making money by increasing women’s consciousness of some part of the anatomy which is declared defective, ugly and which needs to be made perfect. We should hate our muffin tops – they are caused by fat and they and/or their company has the way to make it go away for a substantial amount of money.

One never knows what the conversation will be at breakfast in any of our homes. This morning’s choice of “muffin tops” at first seemed frivolous to me, but as it went on I realized this was something becoming very important to many women and men. I would be on the verge of uncovering a bit of knowledge new to me that I could add to my health and beauty routine. The conversation started in that direction because the youngest woman at the table was fretting over her ‘muffin top’.

The response to her fretting was the information that muffin tops come as you age and your frame shrinks. The extra skin goes someplace and neither exercise nor cosmetics is going to get rid of it. Dieting may make it thinner with less fat under the skin, but it will not make it go away and neither will exercise – unless someone out there knows how to eat and/or exercise to shrink skin.

Women of past generations wore girdles – even thin women. Because this current generation has mostly lost touch with their mothers and grandmother’s, who they consider not as wise nor knowledgeable as their peers, they have lost touch with why women of past generations wore girdles. Those older generations had to do something to make their garments look smooth and to hide that skin flap – which we now call muffin tops. The old becomes new again. If only we could go back to having conversations with our relatives who are of an older generation we would be so wise! You either know history or you are doomed to repeat it – someone actually said that in some history book!!

It became urgent in the discussion to explore muffin tops, because women and girls are now wearing jeans which sit on the hip – right under and emphasizing the muffin top. Is it because emphasizing such a “problem” area can increase the money spent by women to hide it – eliminate it -mutilate it? Not even plastic surgeons can rid you of your muffin tops. You can get a scar around your body to cut out the extra skin, but it won’t last because as your frame continues to shrink your muffin top will return.

What to do? No one had an answer. One woman wore control top panty hose because that was the least intrusive way to keep her outer garments smooth. Another wore a girdle because she wanted to make sure she had everything hidden. The young woman, who started the conversation with an almost passing comment about feeling uncomfortable with her ‘muffin top’ showing, was the youngest woman around the table. She was also the only woman around the table who wore those hip hugging jeans. Aren’t they what started the movement in ghetto’s across the U. S. among African American young boys wearing pants which bag and hang down almost and sometimes definitely below the crack in …………? Is that where designers’ got their inspiration for those hip hugging jeans? Is that the direction in which those hip huggers for women are going?

She wore those instead of the jeans which went to her natural waistline – which is what she used to wear – because the advertisements are all equating those who wear those waist-high jeans as wearing ‘grandmother’ jeans and she didn’t want to look old. (She was probably about 30 years old). No one had any sympathy for her. Everyone told her to get rid of those hip huggers and wear normal clothes for normal body shapes and she wouldn’t have to worry about a muffin top since ‘normal’ or ‘grandmother’ jeans hide your muffin top and give you a much nicer, softer shape. Somehow, I don’t think she was listening – she was looking, instead at the picture of Jane Fonda in pants which are tightly fitted around the legs. Since she looked as though she had short legs I wonder where trying to wear those tight-legged jeans will lead her? Sleeping in a leg stretcher?

The woman at the table who impressed was the one who picked up our blog about liquid vitamin C. She was using every kind of lotion on her thighs and her body from the waist down to get rid of the rapidly increasing look of fat breaking up under the skin – not wrinkles exactly, but a not so great look which only promised to worsen as time went on. She waxed eloquent about liquid vitamin C. It took a little while of constant use, which for her was every other day with a liquid Vitamin C overall massage after her shower, but the results were startling.

She did tell us the first two times she used the liquid C she had a bit of a problem with ‘peeing” – her word, not ours – but she just adjusted her water intake – drank a lot more water during the day – and by the third liquid Vitamin C massage she was fine. She did not offer to show us the results, we had to take her word for the fact that the skin from her waistline down to her knees had dramatically improved – smoothed out and she was now happy about wearing shorts. She could even look good wearing a swim suit without parts of her body being reminiscent of having cottage cheese under the skin. That was important to her because she spent the winters in resort areas where looking good in a swim suit was important.

She put a little of her liquid Vitamin C in our saucers and we all tried it. I must say the results of just one trial were impressive. The liquid Vitamin C became sticky after a while so we had to rinse it off – one woman asked for olive oil and put the olive oil on her face after she had the liquid C on for several minutes. She had a grand facial massage tapping all around her face for quite some time – until someone else got a bit irritated at having to watch and she left the table. When she came back, her face looked fabulous. She had rinsed off the liquid Vitamin C and olive oil with cold water and just patted her skin dry. So very quietly I resolved to make that a bi-weekly regimen.

We went on to note that Dr Oz has finally caught up to Bettina Network’s blog. One of his recent shows talked about not using soap – ever. I went back and searched the blog and found we had talked about that months and months ago.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: girdles, growing old, Muffin Top, physical fitness, skeleton shrinkage, weight problems
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Health and Beauty, Uncategorized | Comments Off on How is Your Muffin Top?

Herman Cain follow-up

Monday, December 5th, 2011

We saw the article about Herman Cain with Marceline’s comments and a quote from the Bettina Network’s blog and it provided our little breakfast table group with a hilarious morning. I thought I needed to write a blog about this notice taken of our little blog. If you are interested in reading Marceline’s publicity go to The Daily Beast – an online publication – and look for their December 2nd article entitled: “Herman Cain Used the Affirmative Action He Decries to Advance.” See http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/02/herman-cain-used-the-affirmative-action-he-decries-to-advance.html

We loved seeing ‘Our Leader ‘in print – although I don’t think she is happy about the publicity or about my calling her “Our Leader”, but then we do have free speech and I hope that doesn’t get this blog thrown into the garbage rather than on the blog page.

What we conjectured, which started a very civilized, quiet conversation among people who barely knew one another, into an unbelievably loud and raucous breakfast, was the question asked by one of our table mates – who will Herman Cain endorse.

We had several, different answers to that question until someone said he will endorse New Gingrich and gave their reasons for saying so! That disrupted breakfast and the quiet conversation took a really hysterically funny turn.

It was about Herman Cain looking around for someone who could carry his banner into the election and possibly into the White House. What was the banner – how was it shaped – what were the priorities Herman was looking for in someone he endorsed? Answering those questions was what caused the hysteria. Why Newt Gingrich? Because Newt and Cain share sexual ‘greatness’ together. Who else among the candidates has so strayed away from their marriages – and who else has so disrespected their wives? Newt and Herman – unlikely bed partners, however take another look – they really do share a lot. Neither one have moved beyond 15 years of age in their emotional development. Do you think they share early morning conversations when everyone else is asleep about their possible new conquests? Their techniques? Which women at which political stops were easy prey? Who fell across the desk in their campaign headquarters for them?

Newt, however, has taken his philandering a step further than Herman. Newt left his wife dying of cancer for his girl friend – who he then divorced for another younger girl friend, etc. Herman hasn’t yet reached that level, but he is well on his way. His wife has not died from a terminal illness, but she is clearly supporting and a co-dependent in his sexual sickness as we saw by her standing by her man.

When are women going to realize they can live alone and that half of that wealth belongs to you? You can enjoy it – do whatever you would like to with your life and eliminate having to endure the public humiliation that we saw Herman Cain’s wife just go through! It will happen again!

Herman’s denial of what several unrelated women have said about him gives us a picture of Herman’s ethics even clearer than does the picture of Herman sexually pressuring women. If elected president those are the ethics he would bring into the White House. We suspect he would have made Clinton and Monica look like kindergarden kids who were tentatively exploring the great world of illicit sexuality. At least Clinton didn’t give out a bald-faced lie – he was better at half-truths. So the Universe sends Clinton to purgatory and Cain to hell! Wonder where all those people are going who are supporting Herman Cain? They are making clear statements about their ethics – and aren’t many of them making strong claims to being Conservative Christians? Is this the ethics coming out of that CC commitment? Hmmm – that provided our group with lots of talk!

Who else shares those ethics in the Republican political presidential hopeful lineup? Hey, Newt – Herman is looking your way as a proper replacement for himself! You contain all of what he respects in a man – your history assures him that you will carry his banner with great aplomb into the White House and you give Herman hope of a comeback after a few years when the rest of the world has either forgotten or their ethics have plunged lower to make them want to and able to support a man like you! We came to the conclusion that endorsing you would provide hope for the future to Herman Cain!

Newt’s current ‘wife’ looks like a bad reincarnation of Jackie Kennedy, right down to the hair and the way she carries herself. What continued the hilarity was a description of how Newt is getting his comeuppance. His dead wife – out where people who’ve died are ‘living’ – must be having the time of her life as she sees Newt having to give up early morning campaign appearances because this wife can’t be ready until later in the morning because it takes that long to get curly hair straight. Wait until they start campaigning in earnest in the deep south. They must be hoping for a very cold and dry winter all over their geographical campaign area.

No one could write a novel casting those two characters – Herman and Newt – in the same political campaign season – describing them and their common characteristics and then have one endorse the other after he has to drop out of his campaign for the womanizing ways they both share. It is an unbelievable scenario and says about the United States Republican Party (Sorry Marceline) – how the mighty have fallen!

I am not a great writer so I can’t really summarize the breakfast we just had conveying the incredible fun time with all of the unbelievably sharp comments which sent us into hysterical laughter – including the Conservative at the table, but I hope this gives you a little oft the drift of our morning.

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Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Making Connections, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Herman Cain follow-up

Olive Oil and Shoes!

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

What in the world would Olive Oil have in common with SHOES???? The two together sounds like the beginning of the end of the shoes and a grand mess to clean.

We had an interesting breakfast with a bed & breakfast guest sitting on the side sofa in the dining room, joining the conversation and cleaning his shoes!!!

Using normal kinds of shoe cleaning materials that could have been a smelly mess and interfere with breakfast, causing smells that would make most of us stop eating and leave the table. This guest, however, came down for breakfast and asked if we had a bit of Olive Oil that he could have in a small saucer or cup or any kind of container.

We thought he was going to use the Olive Oil on his eggs or maybe he didn’t want butter on his toast and was going to use the Olive Oil on his toast so we gave him a saucer and put the bottle of Olive Oil on the table in case any other guest wanted to do the same.

This guest had a small rag with him which he dipped into the Olive Oil which he had poured into his saucer and sat on the side sofa and began to wipe his shoes all over with the rag full of Olive Oil. Imagine the surprise around the table! He very nonchalantly joined the conversation, which came to a halt when folks saw what he was doing. He spent a little bit of time carefully wiping his shoes all over with the rag and at the end took his shoes into the bathroom and rinsed off the soles of his shoes. Wow! The only thing the rest of us had ever done was to take off our shoes and, if we weren’t too tired, put them in the closet.

His shoes looked spectacular. He took them to his room and came back to join the group for breakfast. The questions were all waiting for him. Was he going to wear them that morning? Wasn’t he afraid the Olive Oil would ruin the leather? Why did he do this to his shoes? Didn’t he use regular shoe polish to take care of what looked like very expensive shoes.

He said his mother made him do this when he was a kid growing up. Every night before going to bed he had to clean and polish the shoes he had worn that day. He rubbed them all over with Olive Oil – taking off any dust, etc. which might have collected during the day and would carefully rinse off the soles of his shoes so he didn’t keep in the house any debris tracked in from outside. He didn’t want that kind of ‘dirt’ in his closet. He then put his shoes in his closet overnight and let the Olive Oil soak in. He didn’t wear his shoes out immediately when he cleaned them with Olive Oil, he wanted them to dry first, but he didn’t have Olive Oil with him and since he arrived late at night, didn’t want to bother anyone so he waited until morning to clean his shoes. The airlines wouldn’t let him keep his little bottle of Olive Oil, so he had to give it up before boarding the plane.

Well, you can imagine what followed. All but one of us poured Olive Oil into our coffee cups’ saucer and tried rubbing it on our shoes. The results were great! It was a hilarious time and I was converted. I have continued to use Olive Oil on my shoes and I have not been someone who cleans their shoes after each use -not even during a long shoe-lifetime of wearing. When the shoes get too dirty – out they go into the trash. Now, I will probably have shoes lasting close to forever from what I’ve experienced as a result of cleaning my shoes daily with Olive Oil. The first time I tried this I put the shoes in the closet and took them out the next day to see the results. I didn’t clean any ‘good’ shoes because I was a skeptic. Wow! Those everyday shoes now look really great – as though I had them professionally shined and all I did was to rub them all over with a little bit of Olive Oil.

His mother trained him well.

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Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Housekeeping, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Olive Oil and Shoes!

High Blood Pressure!

Monday, September 12th, 2011

“Hi everybody!

I am a new host family in the Bettina Network and this is my first blog. I didn’t think anything would happen to make me want to write a blog. I am a quiet, unassuming person and generally go about the business serving rather than joining in the conversation.

That has all changed now!

We had a guest who caused quite a lively conversation at breakfast and when everyone was served I couldn’t resist joining them.

She had high blood pressure and her medicine was out. She was away from home and didn’t know how to get a refill. So the table did every thing they could to help. She was quite reticent about calling her doctor or her local pharmacist. She didn’t want to bother them. That is what made me join the table. Someone as quiet and unassuming as I am, so I got a chance to see myself through someone else. I am going to love this bed & breakfast business.

We tried to do what we could to help. I was worried she would get sick in my home and then what – but that didn’t happen.

Everyone around the table had some remedy they put forth to help her bridge the gap until she returned home. What a conversation.

The best suggestion came from a neighbor who came over to join us for breakfast. He said he used Milk Thistle Seed about twice a year for about 30 days each time. He took two Milk Thistle Seed capsules after dinner in the evenings and it made him “pee like a fire hose”. Well, that broke the ice and when I stopped turning red, it was quite a time.

The next best suggestion was organic parsley. So I put parsley on everything at breakfast – the scrambled eggs; I mashed parsley against a cup to bruise the leaves and filled the cup with water so she could have parsley tea. She got the idea and went into the kitchen several times over the next few days and made parsley tea on her own.

Someone else suggested that old stand-by that I’ve always heard about – garlic. Except in the Bettina Network it would have to be organic garlic – I learn fast.

I didn’t know what to do about that. One can’t put garlic in scrambled eggs – or freshly baked bread – or muffins – or cinnamon buns – so I made the cheese spread that has been going around the Bettina Network as a great snack to give people when they arrive. I believe it came from a golf club in Georgia with changes made by several of us. I made it with three whole garlic bulbs. The cheese in the spread, no doubt, counteracted any affect the garlic would have had, but it was enjoyed by all.”

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Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Breakfast Table Talk, Health | Comments Off on High Blood Pressure!

Why the Post Office is Failing!

Monday, September 5th, 2011

What a discussion and why I love bed & breakfast.

We talked at this breakfast about something I didn’t realize —-

Many businesses have a corporate address as a post office box. Technology groups – ie Google, etc. will not accept an account if the address is a post office box, even though that is the address your company has used forever. So the post office has problems because private companies which offer post office boxes are much more in demand by corporations because they offer a street address and suite number. The street address is the physical address of the box provider and the suite number is what would be the old traditional P. O. Box Number.

That is acceptable to groups on the web as a bona fide address whereas the United States P. O. Box number is not.

The private groups charge more than the post office, but if you need a street address you pay the premium.

Apparently, according to this discussion which went around the table, that is one thing taking away income from the United States Post Offices.

Isn’t it amazing the little tid bits that surface at a bed & breakfast.

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The Trek from Home to School 2011

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

“It is that time of year when the exodus starts – from home to school; from what is known culturally, socially, economically, food-wise and more to something new. It is the Exodus from, not the biblical-type Exodus to. For some of us that biblical Exodus will never happen. For the lucky few, that biblical-type Exodus back will be a life-fulfilling time. Having resided in those hallowed halls, the biblical-type Exodus brings a handful back home.

For others, – the unsuspecting, the innocent, the thoughtless, – friends are left behind; relatives are left behind; old institutions which formed a comfort level for most of us are left behind and even our identities are shed and strip-searched. Everything is ripe for forming new attachments, new loyalties, new cultural mores, food habits, clothes styles, friends, and we attach ourselves to new institutions. Most poignantly we adopt new identities without even being aware of that process happening. We feel the pain of the change, but because this is all such an integral part of the society in which we live and because this has all been pictured to us in ways which remove our defenses and understandings, we simply feel the discomfort, the frustration, the confusion that comes from putting in place our new identities. At one time in history these many would have been called the strivers. They are the ones who will succeed beyond their own and anyone else’s expectations because they have that something which brought them out of their own to this new territory without incident, question or immediate guilt.

And yes, what arrives for all in this process is the guilt. A new kind of guilt which will neither surface nor grow for at least a decade. A slowly developing guilt from actions that, to those of us in this process – in our late teens to mid-twenties – has nothing to do with guilt, but is simply life moving ahead.

In this re-ordering process, the new identity is what will be most troublesome over the next several decades. If we are not upper-middle class Northern European we will re-order our family relationships drastically. To move ahead in this ’new’ society we must cut off and keep family at arms length. They will expose our background, our class, the economic base from which we’ve come and more. The exceptions who are used to disprove the rule, are allowed to move ahead and keep family and there are not many of them. They can discretely keep some family around. The others have to move away from family. Find fault with them, keep them at arms length because whatever is wrong is their fault so they will not walk into this beautiful – though painful – place with us.”

Ed. Note: This is a small excerpt from a letter we received from a former guest. He had been part of a conversation around the breakfast table in one of the bed & breakfast homes in the Bettina Network, inc. when parents were bringing their children to college and he was doing the same thing. The conversation from a couple older parents, who are now grandparents was about how they missed their children who were “busy”, had very little time to ‘come home’ and from whom they heard very seldom.

Over the years he has stayed in other homes in the Bettina Network, inc., was a part of conversations with parents who had effectively been ignored by their children for decades and he was beginning to experience the same thing.

We have not put the entire letter in this blog because it is very painful to read and revealed a lot of information personal to the guest. We don’t know your experience, but over the years this certainly parallels many conversations we’ve had with parents as their children left home for school and the years that followed cut them almost totally out of their children and grandchildren’s lives.

The end of his letter follows:

“What is most painful about having packed up my children several years ago – one at a time – and brought them to college – and then to watch them grow away from all of us is the thought that this is what I did to my parents. Without even a thought; not realizing the pain it must have caused them. I became part of the prior generation – leaving home – establishing a very successful career – and looking back today on my childhood and family, which I miss terribly, but can’t replace or even belatedly go back to visit because they are all dead. I did everything I was raised to do – finished college, established a business and now am living comfortably several steps above where my family lived financially and class-wise. But in the end, when I look back, what I wanted and expected was to finish college, go home and move ahead with my life in the context of family – my family. To have grown and maintained my original identity was my goal, although not put in those terms as a young person. That was taken away from me without either my knowledge or consent. How did that happen? Is this how a multi-national economy is formed, grown, expanded? Was I fodder for that process and are my children the new fodder needed for this to continue? I don’t think I even like the new identity I put in its place.”

We hope it is not your experience, but we add it to Bettina’s Blog because the guest sent it for the blog and because we think it is illuminating to life today. Your comments are welcome.

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Remembering Betty Ford at Breakfast!

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

It was a very interesting breakfast. I am sending this to you for Bettina’s Blog because we don’t normally talk about such things, but this was quite thought provoking.

A couple people at breakfast were old enough to remember Betty Ford when she was at her height and the work she did. Particularly her stances around women’s rights – or the equality of women. A lot was said about her, but the part of the conversation I wanted to share with your readers was the observation of the sexism at the funeral and how far we have to go as a country when our top leaders are setting the tone and sending out the wrong messages.

The “presidential” contingent, there to bear witness to Betty Ford and her life were all women, except for former President Bush – the young Bush – the one we try to make fun of. There was Hillary – but no Bill; there was Michelle – but no Barack. That was quite a message. If it were a president who died, the men would be there in force and so would their wives, but because it was the wife of a former president, the disrespect was glaring. We guessed the others were too busy to pay their respects to a former presidents’ wife who they all knew and whose work they all knew and whose contributions to society they all knew. That was so sad. We all felt sorry for them that they would not ‘demean’ themselves by attending the funeral of a former first lady.

Ed Note: Thanks for sending this. We watched the funeral on C-Span, but it didn’t hit us that the former and current Presidents were absent. It looked ‘normal’ to us and therein lies the problem, which is so hard to solve and push aside for a better way of life for all. The wrong example is certainly being set at the top.

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Coconut Oil and Alzheimers

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

We had a great discussion around the breakfast table on Coconut Oil. I pass it along to you. You can put it in Bettina’s Blog, if you like. Maybe other houses in the Bettina Network of bed & breakfast homes would like to start the discussion around their breakfast tables to see what surfaces.

The conversation came from my having seen a segment of the Dr. Oz show which had Dr. Mercola on as a special guest. Thanks to you, I now subscribe to Dr. Mercola’s newsletter at mercola.com so he was no stranger when I saw him on Dr. Oz. The topic of Coconut Oil came up and to my surprise, they were very positive about it.

I am from the generation which was told Coconut Oil is bad and you shouldn’t use it ever. It was put in the category of trans fats and could wreck everything from your heart to you liver to your total health and decrease your life expectancy. I listened to that, in spite of the fact that my great-grandmother used nothing but Coconut Oil. I am, you see, from the generation of people who trashed what they were told growing up in favor of what they hear from their peers and the spin on everything the marketing people spread around the globe. It has taken a couple decades, but I am a reformed family negater and am doing my best to recover the information and wisdom which had been passed on to me by various family members. The longer I live, the more I am shown their wisdom and information was real and long lasting. It stood the test of many generations and is still very viable.

I am a part of the women who have just been liberated, who are roughly akin to first generation immigrants who discard their culture, their language, their family’s wisdom in favor of what they find in their new country. Maybe I have just started to pass that ‘newbie’ space and am moving on to recovering who I am and who the women were in my family. I owe them a lot, which i did not repay nor acknowledge. Trying to say thank you as I recover what I’ve almost lost and grieving over my actual losses of the wisdom and stories the woman in my family tried to pass on to me is overwhelming for me right now. The damage sexism has done to women continues to add-up. I do my best to hold it up for the next generation to see and understand.

I first came upon Coconut Oil in a new light at my daughters house. They had this huge container of Coconut Oil, which they used for everything. I was appalled and was sure they were destroying their health and worse, the health of my grandchildren.

When a guest started talking about the Dr. Oz show and Coconut Oil – I had seen the same show and was doing research into Coconut Oil because of the conflict between my daughters using Coconut Oil; the information I was raised with; and the prevailing information about Coconut Oil out in the ether.

Dr. Mercola talked about Coconut Oil being something which possibly could reverse Alzheimer’s. Which to me meant it could probably also reverse my forgetting nouns and proper names. The conversation around breakfast was fairly heated because one gentleman decided only people who were uneducated could really seriously consider using Coconut Oil after everything ‘science’ has discovered about ‘these foods’. As he talked I immediately defended Coconut Oil because he set off an old feeling which arises when people talk about ‘these people’. Is this a minority food? Is this food threatening to some industry which doesn’t want or like the competition?

I checked out Bettina’s Blog and found we have an article on the blog about massaging after a shower with Coconut Oil. Wow! Ahead of the curve?

As the conversation progressed, we heard – if the guests were correct – there is no ‘good science’ around Coconut Oil being a very negative food which raises your cholesterol. The tests which the marketing people push, were done with partially hydrogenated Coconut Oil – so the Oil iself didn’t stand a chance. The test results were pre-determined to make it look bad.

When one uses Organic, Expeller Pressed and whatever other words were thrown out during breakfast, it turns out Coconut Oil is a good food. All the words meant that Coconut Oil should be bought and used unadulterated without being processed and without being full of additives or hydrogenated. So off I went to buy my Coconut Oil and try the massages, adding Coconut Oil to everything I cook – although I can’t quite get into taking four tablespoons of the Oil daily for the Alzheimers cure – it sounded pretty gross and I am hoping that with no Alzheimers nor dementia in the family I will avoid that one.

I should read Bettina’s Blog a little more diligently so I don’t pass over breakfast conversations like the one you put out on Coconut Oil and Massage. I am going to massage my scalp with Coconut Oil and let it sit for a time before washing my hair. Maybe it will reverse the beginnings of hair loss I am experiencing. It can’t do any harm and I am way ahead of the game if my hair starts to grow in thick and shiny and beautiful. Isn’t that what was used in the Hawaiian Islands for generations – before the U. S. introduced them to all this other stuff – and they were healthy and beautiful people with thick, shiny hair?

Ed Note: Thank you for this article. I would like to add a brief conversation we had over breakfast about using Coconut Oil in a Latté by putting it in the milk before the milk has air whipped into it. The taste is supposed to be excellent, but I must put in the caveat that we have not tried this. The person who told us about this use for Coconut Oil used skim milk. We are not fans of skim milk because we think it is an unhealthy way to go so when we try it, we will try it with whole milk – raw if possible, as untampered with as we can find if we can’t find raw milk.

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Tags: coconut oil, DR. MERCOLA, Reversing Alzheimers
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Is Deodorant/Anti-Perspirant Necessary?

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

We have had quite a time of it with this topic. It all started when we received a request from a guest to please follow up on how to live an organic life without smelling when you give up, especially anti-perspirants.

Several of us took up the challenge. We will never be the same and we will never have the same friends again. People looked at us funny! They moved away from us when we were in meetings during our trial time! We had great and as you can guess, hilarious discussions about this. One bottom line result for all of us – we now know who our true friends are. The others dropped away because they wouldn’t come close to us until this was over – and from them, they said “we love you, but don’t come near me until you have regained your senses and started wearing deodorant or anti-perspirant again – nothing personal, they just couldn’t stand how we began to smell!!!”

Here is what we found – and you have to remember this ‘scientific’ experiement was done by just a hand full of people – women and men:

1) Much to our chagrin, the men didn’t smell as ‘ripe’ as the women throughout this experiement. We don’t know why, that is just what we found. Maybe they cheated and didn’t go to tennis and other heavy activity occasions so they wouldn’t smell and alienate their friends and co-workers.

2) Our bottom line discovery is that it is possible to go without deodorant and anti-perspirants, but it does not happen overnight. You have to work up to it or go around smelling until you have your bodily reactions under control.

Diet has a lot to do with how we smell. And I mean – smell bad.

Lots of fast foods, grease, beef or other animal proteins raise your smell level to almost intolerable by someone sitting or standing next to you if you went two days without a bath or shower. You can do that if you use deodorant. In fact, we found that is probably why people use the stuff because they can go a week without bathing or showering, use anti-perspirants and get by tolerably well.

We tried the suggestion of one persons friend – to use Tom’s deodorant, but we found while it didn’t have the bad stuff in it, it also didn’t work. It worked well for only one person. It left the rest of us smelling bad within an hour or so.

Without using deodorants or anti-perspirants it is imperative that you bathe daily – or shower daily.

The adjustments you have to make to your diet to go without deodorants and anti-perspirants are also good for your weight. I didn’t weigh myself during this time and only stepped on a scale this morning and found I had lost a very appreciable amount of weight. Probably, thinking about something else and concentrating as hard as we had to with this experiment, kept my mind off food and my hands out of the chocolate.

We realized the answer to this question had to be that deodorant and anti-perspirant were not necessary because our ancestors didn’t have the drug companies churning out these products, nor did they have all the tv ads making you feel like a really dirty swamp if you didn’t use them – so – something kept our ancestors from smelling and kept them close to one another without a negative reaction to their mutual body odors.

We found many helps:

1) If you must eat animal protein, use beef, chicken, etc. as though it is a condiment rather than the entire meal. A little bit goes a long way and your body stays ‘fresh’ smelling longer. We don’t know why, we just know that was our experience. We also conjectured if this was the reason anti-perspirants came along and why as humans we are needing stronger and stronger products to keep us from smelling loud and wrong as our diets go further off kilter.

2) Bathe or shower daily – preferably in the morning – so you can get the perspiration or dead skin cells or whatever accumulates overnight, off your skin giving you the best chance at not smelling all day. Of course, there are the overachievers in every group and a couple of us bathed before bed and in the morning while another person bathed in the late afternoon before going out for the evening, at night when she returned and again in the morning. You will recognize her – she is the one whose skin has turned colors from the chlorine in the water.

3)There are ‘helpers’ we found, which we believe, increases your health level and reduces the likelihood of your smelling bad as you participate in life. The biggy is organic, virgin, cold pressed or expeller pressed coconut oil. To give yourself a massage with coconut oil – or if you don’t have the time for an all-over massage to rub coconut oil under your arm pits after bathing, helped a lot. If you also used a couple drops of essential oil after you massaged the coconut oil under your arms you are almost guaranteed not to smell bad, but to smell like whichever essential oil you chose. I liked rose oil. Someone else used lavender oil, and there is the renegade who used rosemary oil. Her smell was a little different, but you got used to knowing when you smelled rosemary oil it was your friend and not stewed chicken on the stove. One used cinnamon oil and one used nutmeg oil, but all of the results were the same; bad body odor was banished.

A second good result came from the person who used organic aloe vera gel either as a massage all over, or when she didn’t have time for a massage, only under her arms. She also used essential oils – only a drop or two under each arm – over her basic massage medium.

We all found that it takes time – from a couple weeks to a month to get good results living without deodorant and/or anti-perspirant. Probably, we guessed, because you have to detox your body of the things which cause you to get that ‘ripe’ odor.

So our conclusion is that you can live very comfortably without either deodorant or anti-perspirant. It takes thought and care and paying attention to your diet and your body and bathing daily, but it is worth it to get ride of those toxins. You know that whatever you put on your skin is in your blood stream in seconds. So if you can’t eat it, don’t use it in your body. AND – there is not a deodorant nor anti-perspirant on the market that I would eat or drink.

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The Royal Wedding at Breakfast

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Wouldn’t you know the Royal Wedding would not escape a Bettina breakfast table. It was a great and very funny discussion. Basically, how to cure the world’s ills using the 30 to 60 million dollars it is estimated will be the cost of this wedding. Homelessness, poverty, hunger, etc. could all be cured well within that amount of money.

Skeptics will question that possibility, but we were sure it could happen. It boggled the mind of everyone at the table that a wedding could cost that amount of money in 2011 – or rather that any one, any country, any institution would spend that kind of money on a wedding, especially in a time when the world is awash in so much tragedy; so many people living in the streets because of earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, and more – not even beginning to call up those who live in the streets all the time.

It makes the “good works” done by the royals look like so much cover for lives led on a level that is beyond human decency. As one person said – who are they that they take the right to themselves to use that much of the world’s very limited resources on such a senseless extravaganza. When these extravaganza’s were in vogue and the thing to do because that was the way of the world, it was done to scare people and so impress them with the power of the throne that they would not dare revolt they would be afraid to even consider another way of life. What then, does it mean today?

What does it mean when Charles raises money for his charities when he doesn’t even put his own tooth paste on his own tooth brush to brush his own teeth? That almost ended breakfast because none of us could eat we were laughing so hard at the description of how this grown man lives.

What does it mean when our media goes rushing to England to cover this extravaganza, searching all around to make it more than it is, spending lots of money and media space while totally not covering those in England who don’t have enough to eat or a decent place to sleep, while gilded horses and carriages are riding about and people are yelling and screaming with joy over the fact that they are being ‘royally’ screwed.

We went from high hysteria with laughter to serious discussions about how long this kind of obscenity can last. Why do so many people follow the high and mighty when their own lives are in trouble because of the resources taken from them to pay for such unnecessary frivolity and show of power and money.

What makes it even more not understandable is the fact that this all takes place in a Christian Church! WOW, did that ever get comment! Exactly what is happening in that Church that all of this is what it is about and what it takes as its “ministry”? They probably even have a mission to the poor – which probably makes up about one-half of one percent of the total amount spent on other things.

The discussion was mostly about what ‘they’ have and what ‘others’ don’t have. It was about the demeaning of the human being – both royal and servant to the royals who do the ‘care taking’ of the royals by running their baths, brushing their teeth, etc..

(You can leave this next part out, but it just totally disrupted breakfast and it took a good five minutes before we could calm down from the laughter this generated).

We wondered who was the servant to the royals who wiped their —— . And we wondered if the American media might get a ‘live’ interview with that person so the rest of us could see whose job it was to do this! We also wondered if this was done with paper or with washable rags. We hoped it was with washable rags so there would at least be some redeeming environmentally friendly result.

I think you get the picture. How we got such raucous laughter out of all of this I don’t know, but it was a pretty funny breakfast and one I have not been able to get out of my mind. None of this was upfront for me. I even watched some of the media coverage leading up to the big day. After that breakfast I have been totally sensitized in a way I hadn’t been before. Long Live the Bettina Network!

Ed Note: We put your blog in as you wrote it without eliminating anything. It was astounding to us. As a result of this breakfast and what was discussed – much of it we hadn’t thought of before either, we are putting the Royal Wedding in Bettina’s Hall of Shame.

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Beautiful and Elegant Skin!!

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

well, we have once again stumbled upon one of the fountains of elegance! Can’t say youth because that is a fallacy! Everything that looks good is called “young”. That is a bad habit we should break – soon! Try this and when you look in the mirror you will see reflected back, a more beautiful you.

The youth of today are already out of control with an abominable arrogance. How did they get it? All the marketing of “youth” would make the strongest young person arrogant. We use ‘young’ and ‘restore your youth’ to market and advertise products almost as much as we use ‘sex’. The most common tag line in advertising is to try this and that – it will make you look and feel ‘young’. That makes the strongest young person arrogant. And we wonder what’s wrong with our ‘youth’ today!!!

This beauty secret is something we’ve known about for generations. Many of us had a tough brush with this growing up. COD LIVER OIL!

What does that have to do with beauty and elegance? Try it on your skin and see what happens!

Another breakfast discovery at one of the Bettina Network bed & breakfast homes!

Take a capsule of cod liver oil – one with oil on the inside, not a solid capsule – clip off the end and squeeze out the oil into your cupped hand. Very gently rub this oil all over your face as you would any face cream. Let it stay on your face at least 20 minutes, preferably longer, and voila! a change for the better that can be seen. Only make sure you aren’t going out soon after because folks will begin to move a little away from you when you enter a room and sit down. You will smell like cod liver oil.

We tried it for several weeks and people we met were commenting on how great we look! We put it on at night before going to bed so by morning when we splash cold water on our face to get a little blood flow going in the cheeks, the smell of cod liver oil is gone.

Sorry, the royal wedding is having an affect on my language – the royal ‘we’ will probably be around in everything I write until all this hoopla has died down! My children try to say that royal ‘we’ has been around a lot longer, but I just ignore them.

This beauty treatment did bring back some controversial memories, which I suspect many of us share. I remember my grandmother giving me cod liver oil on half an orange and telling me it was just an orange and good for me so eat it. She claimed it would keep me beautiful. One look at that very oily orange and you knew you were being conned. One taste of that orange and you just about gagged on everything you had recently eaten. What she should have told me was to take that half-orange soaked in cod liver oil, rub it on my face, let it stay for a goodly amount of time, and I would always be beautiful!

What struck us as we tried this cod liver oil on the face was the fact that unlike other oils which tended to bother our eyes if we weren’t careful and put oil too close to our eyes, cod liver oil didn’t do that. We could put cod liver oil under our eyes and on our eyelids and there was no stinging, burning or other negative side affects. We don’t know why, we are just reporting on the results of our experiments. You might find that to be true or you might find some other affect.

What also struck us was the fact that the cod liver oil was absorbed into our skin fairly quickly. There was no oily residue even when we put on lots of cod liver oil.

We decided this would be one of our beauty regimens. Dry milk, vitamins A and E one day, coconut oil a second day, aloe vera gel a third day, royal jelly a fourth day and cod liver oil capsules on the skin on the fifth day. If that doesn’t create an amazingly beautiful person – on the outside – we don’t know what will. Try it, you’ll like who you see reflected in the mirror in about three to four weeks. Remembering that natural remedies don’t work immediately, although if 1) your skin is dry and has been neglected for some time, or 2) you have been spending lots of money and time on cosmetics which at worst dry out your skin and at best do nothing for you, you are likely to see some immediate results – both in the money left in your pocket book for you to spend and when you look at your face.

We haven’t tried it, but I suspect this would make a great all-over massage treatment. In which case you really want to stay away from other people until you have given yourself a great cod-liver oil massage; let it stay for an hour or so; and have rinsed yourself off in the shower with luke warm moving to cold water. This might even be good for your health!

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Industrialization of Information

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

What follows is a summary – as best we could – of a very interesting breakfast conversation in one of the bed & breakfast homes in the Bettina Network, inc. It is a woefully inadequate summary, but it is one we think you will understand from the bits and pieces we picked up.

“Our ancestors lived through and saw their lives dramatically changed by the Industrialization of Agriculture. Some good, but a whole lot not so good, has come out of that still-ongoing movement.

We moved from a pastoral, family oriented, farm society in which we knew where our food came from; we knew how it was grown; we didn’t eat food very far from its source; and we created much of what we needed. From that era we have moved to a society where we eat food which has been processed so much that we don’t know what it was originally; have to read the labels to find out what’s in the food being sold; and when we do we discover food is the last ingredient on the label, most of the other ingredients are words we can neither read nor pronounce. The dilution, pasteurization, manipulation of real food has happened while we were all looking in another direction.

Huge machinery has been designed and built to produce things like potato chips, bread, cookies, jam, rice, pasta and to make vegetables into things we could never imagine and wouldn’t eat if we hand’t been introduced to some really grotesque abominations from childhood. Healthy real foods have been processed and industrialized into out of control and life denying addictions. Animals are being raised and slaughtered in ways that make science fictions’ most abominable and ruthless monsters cry at the thought of what we do to the animals with which we share this earth.

Today, the big industry is the food industry with processing taking place on nearly every food item available and those which are not now in the processing industry are being pushed there by the ever increasing and more ridiculous requirements of the FDA – i.e. the edict that raw almonds have to be pasteurized before they can be sold because of the fear of mold negatively affecting those who buy and eat raw almonds. Almonds, which have been sold and eaten raw for thousands of years with no bad effects on those who have eaten them.

We are a society with increasing kinds of illnesses happening from this processing, genetic expansion, experimental development from the corporate farm.

The same type of thing is happening in the information arena. We are digitizing, organizing, exploding the information available to the average person. We are organizing people into social networks and feeding them all kinds of information which is becoming a necessity instead of a some-time thing. Where is that going? How will that affect everyday people? What will it do to how we live and what is considered necessary for modern survival?

It is bizarre with some of the equipment, which has become indispensable. If you are of an age, you went about your life without a cell phone and felt very secure in where you were going, how you were going to get there and some smattering of what to do in case of an emergency.

Today, many children hyperventilate at the thought of their parents going around without a cell phone. They feel and articulate that they have no emergency outlet if something horrible befalls them. These are parents who didn’t know anything about cell phones and let’s not even mention grandparents.

If you moved from one city to another, you found your way around and found your way to the local library, city hall and other places to become acquainted with your new surroundings. Today, many feel stripped naked if they move and don’t have access to their computer and Google, Yahoo or some other search engine. They absolutely can’t function without it.

The first thing many of us do when meeting someone new is to “Google” them to see what is on line about them; click on their address to see what kind of house they live in, etc. We don’t feel comfortable with another human being until we have “Googled” them.

We moved on from there in a very lively debate, but I think you get the gist of the breakfast conversation. – Huge amounts of money is being made taking what was in the public sphere and putting it in the technology sphere making money on this information in the process. Much more will gradually be put into some form of this informational industrialization with many more making obscene amounts of money manipulating what was free.

In the process we become more and more tied to machines and the developing technology as we get sicker by the minute from what this technology and its developing delivery utensils are doing to our bodies. They irradiate, and do all kinds of other things to us, our genes, our bodies, our environment, our lifestyle AND the food we snack on while engaging in and enjoying this newfound power. The Industrialization of Information ties into and promotes the Industrialization of our food industry. One promotes the other. And where will it all end? In the industrialization of yet another part of this society? Or in leaving this world to robots which will be the only things which will be able to survive the atmosphere and environment we are creating.

Maybe we need a group to look into and study this, presenting their findings globally in a webinar which will compete with another study groups’ webinar encouraging us to go back to the primitive life before all of this happened and outlining how to do this.

We won’t be able to run off to Vermont as one could do to escape much of the Industrialization of Food because Vermont is well into the Industrialization of Information. Those who are going back to the ‘old ways’, the ‘non-consumer’ ways by running off to Vermont usually do so taking with them their technology toys. So we will have to find another safe haven to which we can escape when we have made millions from this new Industrialization and find it too difficult to sustain ourselves as humans through old age in the world we created.

Ed. Note: Hmmmm, isn’t that the Christian definition of sin? Probably the definition of sin in many of the world’s religions

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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The Trek from Home to School 2011

Remembering Betty Ford at Breakfast!

Coconut Oil and Alzheimers

Is Deodorant/Anti-Perspirant Necessary?

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Beautiful and Elegant Skin!!

Industrialization of Information

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