‘Would you happen to sell bicarbonate of sodium?’ I heard an elderly man ask the store clerk at the grocery store today. ‘Of course the store does’, I thought. It’s baking soda. Well, the clerk was nonplussed, did a search on the computer, went to the medicine aisle, searched for a minute then declared they don’t have any and that Walgreens might have some .. at which point I decided to go for it and intervene. I grabbed a little box of baking soda from the baking aisle, showed it to the customer, and explained to him ‘This is baking soda, and it really is bicarbonate of soda. Might this be what you are looking for?’ Yes, yes! he said. ‘Look, he found it!’ he yelled at the store clerk. So there : my good deed for the day. (What did he need it for? To clean his dentures with). The funny thing is that I bought a little packet of baking soda just for fun this Sunday at the Uwajimaya store. I couldn’t resist the packaging with the cute picture showing all the uses for baking soda, and I think the picture reminded me of my mom : ).