Inside the Summer Issue: Home Page Harry Chapins Ripple of Influence Grows Every Day Jen Chapin Leads Us On A Lushly-Written Journey Into Her Life In Ready WHY Takes Holistic Approach to Fight Hunger & Poverty DMCs New Disc Strikes Many Chords Hard Rock Café Serves Up Benefit CD to Fight Hunger When Howie Met Harry: Catching Up With Drummer Howard Fields Performing Artist Inspires Audiences Through Prose Celestial Cross-Pollination Yields a Harry Chapin- Dante Anthology of Student Essays Amish Farmers Co-op Finds Innovation in Simpler Ways Still Wild About Harry Behind the CD Cause Do Something! Goat Tales Circle! Calendar Click below to read previous issues of Circle! | From the bottom of her wrinkles by Bill Hornung After 28 years, youd think I would know pretty much everything about my wife. Imagine my horror when I discovered shes been secretly trafficking in illicit substances. It all started innocently enough. I found a lumpy brown envelope in our mailbox. It caught my attention because, well, it was lumpy. And it was covering up my latest issue of Progressive Goat Farmer magazine. You cant be too careful these days. So I did what any actor playing a CSI Miami cop would do. I shook the envelope. Held it up to the sunlight. Examined the seal. I have no idea why they do this, but I followed the procedure just to cover my bases. The package was adorned with suspicious looking postage stamps. The stamps were from Canada, a fugitive country known for major drug dealing. The writing was cryptic. Lots of apostrophes, some dots over letters and upside down exclamation points. It was obvious that the words were in a foreign language. I know my foreign languages
after all I have a teenage daughter who says things that I rarely understand. I ripped open the package and out fell two mysterious tubes printed with the words Preparation H. I couldnt remember exactly where I had heard of Preparation H except I was sure it involved some government conspiracy that reached to the highest levels. I kept reading for more clues until I found conclusive evidence. Printed right below the name were the words reduit les hemorroides which is French for please find me a cushion to sit on. The notorious Canadian hemorrhoid cream was being delivered right to our home. Common street names: Clod buster, Zippy, ItchWitch and PuffBGone. Yep, I needed to get to the bottom of this. I confronted my wife with the $32 receipt and the two Prep H tubes. Oh, Sophia down the street tells me this stuff is a fantastic wrinkle remover, Gena confides. But you have to buy the Canadian stuff
it still has Bio-Dyne, some wonder ingredient that was banned in the U.S. a few years ago. Youre actually going to put this on your face? I inquire. Arent you afraid that your eyes and lips will shrink into one of your nostrils? No, but I have thought about applying it to you as you sleep. Just as a test. To be safe. Needless to say I remain shaken by my wifes dark side. Is this the start of a desperate spiral into dealing other lurid Canadian goods, such as Paul Anka records? Maybe she needs to put her experience in trafficking medical goods to a better purpose. Like helping with Atlanta-based MedShare International, which collects surplus medical goods and equipment from hospitals and then distributes the items to some 89 countries that often lack basic healthcare items like bandages, syringes, hospital beds and monitoring equipment. Since 1998, MedShare has distributed more than $25 million in donated goods. Many of these recycled first-quality products were destined to fill 540,000 cubic feet in area landfills
but are now helping in the recovery of thousands of people throughout South America, Africa, the Caribbean and other parts of the world. MedShares Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator (a charity watchdog group) is the highest possible ranking for fiscal responsibility and effectiveness. The good work and sound business practices have attracted contributions from Hospital Corporation of America, Kimberly-Clark, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the UPS Foundation and many others. At this rate, Im sure MedShare will be hearing from Preparation H folks soon. If not, I have some good contacts. Watch for the Next Issue of Circle! on September 7 |