Today is a sunny day at the end of over a week of less than stellar occurences in my life.
Right this second there is a child standing on the chair I'm sitting on pretending to eat sparkles from the air, which sadly are likely dust motes.
As always, I'm only a few sentences in and already miles off topic. I found this cool old cookbook/yearbook put out in 1912 by a company called Nyal's. They clearly put it out as a promo to try and sell their own products, but looking through it is a total peek into Canada's past in many ways. Other than the fact that it lists the weather predictions for the year, by month, the horoscopes, and a bunch of things like measure conversions for baking etc- it also lists Canadian facts as they were then - Canada had the largest buffalo herd on the continent. Gooo Canada!
There were some interesting "Household Hints" as well. For example
In buying fish, the gills should be red.


Corns promptly removed by Nyal's corn remover. 25c a bottle.


Sprinkle places infested by ants with borax and you will soon be rid of them.
(modern version. give the kids a shoe. environmentally friendly...)

A true test for eggs is to drop them in water, and if they long end comes up , they are fresh.


Paint stains that are dry and old may be removed from cotton or woollen goods with chloroform. It is a good plan to first cover the spot with olive oil or butter.   (well geez I need to get down to the kidnapper store and get myself some chloroform! I didn't even know people could buy that.)

When a broom becomes shorter on one side, and the ends of the straws become sharp as needles, dip it into hot water, trim it neatly and evently with the shears, and you will find a broom nearly as good as new.


That's all I have for right now- though the book is chock full of interesting ideas. I'll have to post later on the benefits of ironing lice off of your hair and stuff. Good times to be had there for sure!