101 Uses for a Dead Credit Card No 4: Back Massager

This might sound a bit weird, but believe me, it works a treat.  I can't take credit (no pun intended) for this idea;  I first heard it on Radio 4's late, lamented Saturday morning program 'Home Truths'. If I remember correctly it came from the great John Peel himself. Strictly speaking, the plastic card is deployed as a scraper rather than a massager.

Those of you who have had the benefit of a classical education will know that the correct term is strigil. This was originally a curved metal tool, used in the public bath houses of ancient Greece and Rome.  Bear in mind that in those days modern-day products such as soap, bubble-bath and shampoo had not yet been invented.  They did have access to plenty of olive oil, however, and used this to cleanse and condition the skin. A strigil would be then be deployed used to scrape off the oil, along with all the dirt and sweat. Apparently there was a wide variety of strigils in different shapes and sizes designed  for different parts of the body. The mind boggles; don't even go there...

If you were really posh, you would have had your own dedicated slave to do the strigilating for you.  It is rumoured that, after a sweaty bout in the arena, gladiators used to scrape off their own perspiration, bottle it, and sell it to their adoring fans.  A similar idea to latter-day celebrities marketing their own brand of perfume, but less hygienic.