"A backwards smoke and three evening soaks will end all jokes or horrible hoax." Fact! The basis for this wives tale cure comes from walking backwards while smoking, followed by bathing three evenings in a row. Yes three in a row. I know, ridiculous. I was not about to test this one myself. I shudder to think...

At any rate, many folks over the years have been confused by the "backward smokes" portion of this wisdom thinking one had to somehow inhale smoke from the bowl and light their pipe through the stem. This of course only added to their woes. Luckily we have a large amount of early writings about this cure for ill meant hoaxing here at the Oom Palace, and those bits of wisdom point to smoking your pipe while walking backwards. The shortest amount of backwards smoking said to do the trick (or rather end it) is a mere 10 paces. Mind you this needs be followed by a bathing for three nights straight. This means in a tub of water rather than any sort of modern shower. Numerous tests have shown this cure to work perfectly well on mean spirited tomfoolery with less effect to good spirited ribbing.