You So Salty

I've been having nocturnal difficulties lately (read: trouble sleeping), so I've been hearing more talk radio than I normally do.  Last night as I was toggling between asleep and awake they had a gentleman on to discuss some proposed rule that salt be removed from restaurant tables because its overuse can lead to high blood pressure and other health problems.  His reponse to this was that one's body needs salt; it cannot survive without it.  He also thought sugar should be removed, but I'm going to pretend I dreamed that part.  In an interestingly timely fashion, I came across this article on the many uses of salt.  Here are a few that are craft related:

• Keep cut flowers fresh:  A dash of salt added to the water in a flower vase will keep cut flowers fresh longer. (You can also try an aspirin or a dash of sugar for the same effect.) 
• Arrange artificial flowers:  Artificial flowers can be held in place by pouring salt into the vase, adding a little cold water and then arranging the flowers. The salt become solid as it dries and holds the flowers in place.
• Make play dough:  Use 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons oil, and 2 tablespoons cream of tartar. Stir together flour, cream of tartar, salt, and oil, and slowly add water. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently until dough becomes stiff. Spread onto wax paper and let cool. Knead the dough with your hands until it reaches a good dough consistency.
• Set color:  Salt is used commonly in the textile industry, but works at home too. If a dye isn't colorfast, soak the garment for an hour in 1/2 gallon of water to which you've added 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup salt, then rinse. If rinse water has any color in it, repeat. Use only on single-colored fabric or madras. If the item is multicolored, dry-clean it to avoid running all of the colors together.
• Clean a gunky iron bottom:  Sprinkle a little salt on a piece of paper and run the hot iron over it to remove rough, sticky spots.

The rest of the article has oodles of nifty tips (46, to be exact) for everything from removing various stains to helping with mosquito bites.  Might be a handy list to have around.  Especially the gunky iron part.  Some of us have various adhesives from interfacings and such on the bottom of our irons. Not ME of course...ahem.