Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> I like to joke that Scott would have lived far longer if he had  
> drudged less and made more music with Helen. An editor for whom I  
> once wrote a monthly column had a long telephone interview with  
> Helen, wherein Helen did in fact state in pretty much direct words  
> that Scott was a sourpuss who had low-level humor and didn't have  
> near enough fun.
> 

When I read Helen's eulogy of Scott's death at  100 in the preface to the 
1989 edition of "The Good Life", my first reaction was "Why did he die so 
young??"

People in my family ate pork, uncorked the jug, and did all sorts of things 
Nearing decried and lived longer than that.

I think your posit is the most significant.  He was a sourpuss.  I have some 
videos of him filmed in the 1970's and although there is a humor there, it's 
like Sweet-Tarts, jaw locking sour underneath.

But also he decried drinking water.  He said it washed out the minerals and 
you'd get plenty of water with your food (he advocated soup daily).  I think 
that is most unhealthy!  Is the soft drink Dr. Pepper available all over the 
US? 
  It was named after a real Dr. Charles Pepper right here in Bristol, 
Tennessee.  His son-in-law in Rural Retreat Va devised and marketed it (Dr. 
Pepper 
died in 1903).  The 10-2-4 on the soda cap came from Dr. Pepper's admonition 
to 
drink only water and he had a clock rigged in his doctor/pharmacy shop to 
chime at those hours whereupon he'd drink 24 ounces of water.  Part of 
Nearings 
death at such a tender age was due, says I, to dehydration.

Also, the occasion of his death was a stroke.  He ate, says I, far too little 
fat.  He claims to have not eaten any animal fat, but records show he didn't 
follow that and ate cottage cheese and sour cream until the end.  None he 
less, his diet was too austere and I think he starved his brain into a stroke.

I like a lot of what Nearing said, much of what he did, but I wouldn't want 
to be him,

James   </HTML>