A Korean family hoping to cure their mother’s weak knees bid nearly $120,000 (£70,000) at an auction for a set of wild ginseng roots. Yonhap news agency reported that an entrepreneur and his brothers made the bid. The package of six roots included specimens 110 years old. Ginseng is highly valued in Korea for its perceived healing and potency benefits.
For some reason this reminded me of a poem called Scorflufus by the late, Great Spike Milligan, I used to read it to my children (about 200 times before they went to sleep...)
SCORFLUFUS by spike Milligan
There are many diseases
that strike people's kneeses,
Scorflufus is one by name.
It comes from the east
packed in barrels of yeast
so the Chinese must take half the blame.
There's a case on the files
Of Sir Barington Pyles
Who, while out hunting foxes one day
shot up in the air
and remained hanging there
While the hairs on his socks turned grey.
Scorflufus had struck at man beast and duck
and the knees of the world went 'bong';
(some knees went bing,
other knees turned to string)
from Balham to old Hong Kong.
If you hold your life dear,
then the remedy's clear,
if you're offered some yeast don't eat it.
Turn the offer down flat,
don your travelling hat,
put an egg in your boot and beat it.
and that is more than convention reasonably allows me to quote from this piece (Copyright Spike Milligan)
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. - Maximilien Robespierre.
