Speaking of Lore

I was off on a little trip and saw, among other people, my brother-in-law David, who had a book with him called COUNTRY WISDOM & LORE, I think, and in that book it said that you can cure alcoholism by feeding the sufferer an owl's egg, only you can't tell him it's an owl's egg. So that was a book with an owl in it and we can add it to our definitive list of books with owls in them. By coincidence I was also carrying a book with an owl in it, a Library of America anthology called AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES: 1940s TO NOW, and as you can imagine it is packed to the rafters with owls, probably. Just one so far, I admit. I'm going to use that volume in my ghost class, which I am teaching again, only there aren't as many ghosts this time, and lots more octopus-headed space demons, so I'm going to have to call the class something else maybe. Hey, speaking of lore, my brother-in-law David sent me an informative article about the medicinal uses of the unicorn horn. My favorite part is an old quote about a cure for mad-dog bite, which involves pulverized lobster shells and a unicorn horn "if you can get it," the best part of all being the author of the article's careful annotation, "The scarcity of unicorn's horn is indicated by the phrase 'if you can get it.'" I'm not going to "link" to it because big red letters across the top say the unicorn article is "for personal use only" and cannot be "reproduced without permission" and is "linking" a kind of reproduction? I just don't know anymore in this amazing new world that I hate so much. I am sure you all recall when Elke Sommer refused to let me "link" to her paintings of creepy dolls. So I'm playing it safe. I'm sure you can find the article by "googling" the phrase "scarcity of unicorn's horn is indicated" but I know you won't do it. You never do anything.