Hair of the Dog

If you’ve read my blogs on mining and beauty (February 28, March 7, and March 14, 2017), you’re entitled to know more about Pliny the Elder. He was a Roman naturalist, philosopher, and author who lived at the time of Miriam bat Isaac. Many of our aphorisms derive from his sayings, such as “In wine there's truth,” “Home is where the heart is,” and “The only certain thing in this life is that nothing is certain.” My favorite is “So many things were thought to be impossible before they were done.” You’d likely recognize others as well.

His most notable work was Natural History, an encyclopedia and authority on scientific matters until the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, his advice was often unreliable. For example, his best-known treatment for rabies was to take the hair from the tail of the dog that inflicted the bite, burn it, and insert the ashes into the wound. This recommendation—alas, no more effective than his others for rabies—nevertheless lives on in our expression “hair of the dog” not as the remedy for rabies but for hangovers.

Do your homework. Read The Deadliest Lie and The Deadliest Hate. No excuses. Then read The Deadliest Sport, which will be published this year. So far, no publication date has been set for the fourth Miriam bat Isaac novel, The Deadliest Fever, but I can tell you this: The thief was bitten by a rabid bat. It will be up to Miriam to learn the thief’s motive and recover the swag before the deadliest fever claims him. Want to know more? Click here for the blurb on my website about Miriam’s fourth exploit.