Oh my...

• Mannatech distributors circulated a nude picture of the child and claimed that he had benefited from their products.
• The child actually died in 1997, shortly after using the products.
• The marketing campaign persisted until 2004 despite requests by child's mother to stop it.

That's fucked up.

Calli, this whole thing reminds me of the time I was at the Atlanta airport, waiting for a flight, and this guy sitting by me spent the entire hour and a half before the flight making sales calls for some sort of mystical product like that. It was really uncomfortable, listening to him leave voicemails for people and talk to people he didn't really know, trying to rope them into becoming salespeople for this product. Your cousin should be ashamed of himself.

Mnnf. Morning, all!

I'm taking a sick day today. My body is ten million types of sore, and I need to look into a last-minute chiro session, a massage, and a flexibility class. I'm worried that the body pain will trigger headaches, so I'm moving slowly and doing biofeedback exercises.

I was wondering if I'd be mobile the day after. I expected headaches, but I've managed to quit two so far this morning.

Calli-good luck in getting your parents disentangled. The Herbalife pyramid scheme bothers me enough, but yours is more serious.

Oh Calli, I'm so glad you found some useful information. It's just incensical (is too a word) that people willingly, eagerly do that sort of thing to other people to make a buck. Take cousin-doctor down, and hard.

Jars, my sympathies on your loss. I'm so sorry.

Yikes, hope you start feeling better ita.

ita, I'm sorry you're so sore today. But surely the glow of accomplishment cushions at least some of the worst of it? Best of luck on averting the rest as best you can. And I did say congratulations, right?

Best of luck Calli, that sounds like a sucky situation. I have a basic theory about MLM schemes. If the product is really that good, then you don't need to market it that way.

Thanks for the info and support, folks. It really helps to be able to discuss this stuff here.

I hope the soreness passes quickly, ita.

You know, as long as the body pain doesn't trigger headaches (it's my mission for the day to avoid that), it's a welcome change from before. Which sounds all kind of ill, perhaps, but "at least it's not a migraine" is a big deal for me.

t Poking head

ita! I saw people congratulating you in my skippings, so I looked a bit back. Now I have this urge to call you and shout "khagora khooma!"¹ in celebration. You're amazing.

¹ Hebrew for "brown belt"

[Edited to note my not-really-here-ness, as well as the double consecutive square nature of my post #, with 36=6² and 49=7²]