ABSTRACT
On a dreary, rainy day last week, I sat in front of my TV aimlessly switching channels. Nearly brain-dead, I did something quite unusual for me. I stopped on the channel showing Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Somehow the mindlessness of the show appealed to me at that moment. In this episode, a snake oil salesman enters Colorado Springs, home to Dr. Quinn, her love interest—the hunky and enigmatic mountain man Sully—and her three adopted children. The snake oil salesman, a self-proclaimed doctor and self-proclaimed celebrated healer, hawks his wares, as snake oil salesmen do, knowing that his potion would not cure any ailments except that of his empty wallet. Unfortunately, the townspeople jump on the bandwagon and turn away from Dr. Quinn’s legitimate treatments. She warns them, but they can’t resist the promise of a quick cure. Alas, she is proven right. The grifter steals away in the middle of the night clutching his ill-gotten gains, heading for another town to employ his scam.
