holy_water ovenbird My Baba kept holy water on hand for emergencies. I once opened the fridge to get salad dressing only to discover that the bottle I plucked from the door was full of holy water rather than ranch. (Well, I didn’t know the water was holy, but Baba filled me in.) This holy water, she explained, came straight from the baptisimal font at the church. On special occasions parishioners were allowed to raid the font and carry home holy water for personal use. I’m not sure why the holy water had to be kept cold. Does holiness degrade in sunlight? Does refrigeration extend the shelf-life of miracles? Was it just to stave off bacterial growth occurring in the remnants of buttermilk and chives clinging to the inside of the bottle cap? I will never know. But if you got a headache at Baba’s house you would probably be given a small cup of pickle juice (another substance with myriad curative properties) and then be sprinkled sparingly with holy water from the fridge. Same deal if you had a fever, or sneezed a few too many times in a row. And while I expressed snarky skepticism as a child, I now mourn the fact that I will never be cared for in such a weirdly beautiful way again. 250607 what's it to you? who go blather from