A collection of short stories by Stephen King, published in 1978. It was King's first short story collection and his fifth published book. I suspect it's his best-known collection and the most widely read, too. More than likely, you're familiar with at least a half-dozen of the stories here, either because you read them at some point, or because you saw one of the movies that were based on these stories. 

The stories here include: 

• "Jerusalem's Lot" - A Lovecraft pastiche that actually has relatively little to do with King's vampire-stuffed novel "Salem's Lot."
• "Graveyard Shift" - A drifter gets hired to clean out a few basements full of rats -- oversized, mutant rats. It was turned into a movie in 1990. 
• "Night Surf" - A post-apocalyptic tale of some college students who survived a global epidemic and face an uncertain future. 
• "I Am the Doorway" - A science fiction story about an

…

Gripe water is a "medicine" used to treat colic in infants. To be clear, there is no scientific evidence that it works, and some variants may contain activity harmful substances. To be very very clear the original formulation, below, is just pain bad, and currently illegal in both the US and the UK.

Gripe water is not a traditional remedy, despite what many sources would have you believe. It was invented in 1851 by English pharmacist William Woodward, who noted that certain…

2019 Sep 10

15 minutes: Slice it open

Pierce it. Using a sawing motion. That usually gets the blade well in there.

See how smooth that motion is? Hold it still. Press down a bit. You might cut yourself if it slips.

Clack. The blade snaps onto the board.

You're not done yet. There's still a bit of the skin left. That's still holding the bottom together, isn't it? Don't…