1. NY Times
August 13, 2016
Sports | Inbox
An Old World Peril
Re “For Aching Believers, Remedy Is Spot On,” Aug. 9: The “cupping” marks on Michael Phelps remind
me of the old Yiddish expression “It will help like cupping a corpse.” The saying comes from our great-
grandmothers, so we can trace it to Europe in the 1800s. We were told that in lieu of real medical science,
and access to doctors, the practice of cupping was used on the sick. Our mothers and grandmothers smiled
at this stupidity. They described it as dangerous Old World superstition, like using leeches.
Hence, it stood for a useless act. Trying to talk your stingy boss into a raise will “help like cupping a
corpse.” Sending flowers to your horrid mother-in-law as a gesture of good will will “help like cupping a
corpse.” It couldn’t help restore health to a dead person, and they also told us that cupping was an antique
and unsafe practice for the living. This was usually followed by discussing the miracle and blessing of
making it to America and its solid medical procedures.
Clearly, Phelps has no Jewish grandmother to warn him away from this Old World peril, which he
perceives as New Age healing.
Caron Shapiro
New York