Soap was named after the Greek poet Sappho, claims Larry Plesent, whose company, Vermont Soapworks, produces natural soaps and bath products in Middlebury.

"The women of Lesbos (who invented the first bank in the Western world) also lay claim to the invention of soap," he says. "You see, they actually ran a brothel, disguised as a temple. Supplicants gave donations to the church. Those without money brought goats. Lots of burnt offerings and ashes - the raw materials of soap!"

If that's true, my hat is off to those Greek women. Long ago, I traded in my plain old drugstore soap for the handmade, old- fashioned kind they would have used, because I find it far gentler to the skin. I didn't ...