Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Aaron has an amusing article about the little surprises one finds in the basements of old houses. (Apparently, by linking this article I am in fact voting for him in another "New Blog Contest" on The Truth Laid Bear.) Aaron and his wife discovered a container of an old cleaning chemical, which is unremarkable enough until they read the instructions for use.

My family, thus far, has lived in apartments only, so we haven't had this pleasure -- except for our very first apartment, when my wife and I first got married. This was in a very old and large building that had once been a school. We had a lot of room, hardwood floors that creaked, an ancient gas stove, et cetera. We also had a musty basement that we never used for anything. I never found any amusing cleaning solutions down there, but it was partitioned into a series of small rooms interlinked by old, wooden doors, and light coming only from the bare light bulbs set in old fixtures in the ceiling. No windows at all. The whole place was reminiscent of Buffalo Bill's basement in The Silence of the Lambs.

"It puts the lotion in the basket...."

(By the way, Aaron, the little conundrum you had with "flammable" and "inflammable" is not unique to you. In fact, it was used in an episode of The Simpsons. If I recall correctly, it was Dr. Nick -- "Hi, every-body!" "Hi, Dr. Nick!" -- who ran afoul of that bit of linguistic oddity.)