“Tis the season to be jolly!” Indeed, but with elevated stress levels during the holidays, I sooner find myself saying “Calgon, take me away!” For those of you unfamiliar with this phrase, it’s from a 70s TV ad where a stressed-out woman is unraveling over “the traffic, the boss, the baby, the dog!” She rescues herself by losing her cares in the luxury of a Calgon bath. I mistakenly thought Calgon was a bubble bath, but it’s actually the trade name for complex salt, Sodium hexametaphosphate (NaPO3)6. Simply put, it’s a water softener.
