Mining, brining and shining.

Yeah, it's bad for your body. But, if you've ever cracked the spine of Tim Kurlansky's "Salt", you know it's pretty good for your imagination.

For instance, who knew Roman Soldiers, after a long day of crucifying, pillaging or merely enforcing the decrees of the emperor, got their wages in salt? From whence comes the root of our 'salary', 'soldier' and the fact that you're totally worth your salt. That was news to me, too. And let's not even get into Lot's wife. What a way to go.

I suspect that Kurlansky moved on from his other great book, the amazing 'Cod', to salt from the fact that the fish was salted for preservation. Maybe not, but that's the way I'd move from one subject to the next: "Okay, I'm done with Cod. So what do I do next? Cod was pretty successful, so maybe I should do something cod-related. Hmm...cod...cod...salt cod...that's it! Salt."

Anyway, as it happens, there are three ways to get your salt. You can mine it. So you spend another day in the salt mines to earn your salary. You can get it from brine, usually by boiling. Or you can do it my favourite way. Just let some sea water dry in the bright mediterranean sunshine. Nice work if you can get it.

Gandhi did his Dandi March to the sea, a protest against the inflated taxes the colonial British we're levying for salt. Kind of a non-violent Kerala Salt Party. He defied the `British Salt Law' by going to the Arabian Sea, basically drying some water and 'making salt'. And that's how that got started. Indian emancipation, I mean.

I love the fact that we can speak salaciously with our salty tongues. That ol' Crusty Mcgee, who sailed the seven seas is an 'Old Salt'. Oh, and if, like me, you loves you some Aerosmith, a little time with 'Uncle Salty, from 'Toys in the Attic' will treat you rrrright.

NaCl - it rocks. It's edible rock. But don't eat too much, or you'll keel. And then, like the Egyptians, you might even by corpsed in the stuff, only to be grimly, but elatedly, dug up by future archaeologists.