(as Rael sits upright in his chair) After a week-long bout with a body-ache flu, complicated by a strained sciatic muscle, I was tired of every cough feeling like someone hit my back with a hammer. The Tylenol 3 tablets weren't much good; alcohol worked much better, but that has its practical limitations. What to do ... I mixed a little batch of massage oil blend (peanut, olive, lanolin, almond) with ground red savina from Mr. Campbell's field - about 3 teaspoons in a 8-oz bottle. Apply to the muscle (from the lower spine, across the top of my butt to the hip) and wash hand immediately. Wait and see. (Yes, fellow knuckledragggers, I did scratch my butt while I was thinking about it) The effect is more subtle than I expected - a gentle warmth and a noticeable local pain-killing effect. Sort of a glow to take your attention away from the muscle pain. Smells like a marzipan candy from Hell. Speaking of Mr. Campbell, he wrote: >An official subponea (sp) will be issued to Alex Siljaboris for more mojo chicken! Well, if the Senate wants to depose me, they had better disable every smoke detector in the Capitol... that's about as political as I'm going to get here. Serioulsy, I've been looking forward to the firey foods festival in Madison IN (along the Ohio River, near Cinci) ever since the last one. It's a good time in a small winery in an old historic downtown. I hope to camp in Clifty Falls State Park again, but this year I'll have the Outback that I was waiting on last year. And Jim, I've got the hang of that black box grill, so I can also maple-smoke or hickory-smoke some meats on the sidewalk. Now I have about two months to devise some fiendish way to assault these good people with peppers. I already plan to bring samples of the Red Problem #1 sauce made from Jim's habaneros, but there must be something more, something new. Alex Silbajoris 72163.1353@compuserve.com gears turning