Cultural Icon Watch

Too late for this year, but here's a suggested Valentine's Day present from the Atmore Advance in Alabama:

Edith Beans, owner of the Beans Store, suggests that your sweetheart might be happy with a hot relaxing bath on Valentine's Day.

"We have a lot of bath and body products including Ahava - a bath and body product that's popular because it comes from the Dead Sea where the Dead Sea Scrolls are from," Beans said. "We also have Valentine baskets, candy, cards and gourmet apples."

Thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Mobile, sales of Ahava are probably brisk. I'm not sure what Ahava is made of, but out of curiosity a couple of years ago I bought some Dead Sea mud soap. It was basically soap made with mud, which isn't all that attractive a product if you ask me.