Many of you will remember — though many won’t, as it’s been awhile — the over-the-counter patent medicine Hadacol.

Hadacol was conceived as a dietary supplement but was purveyed as an “aid to nature,” one that would enhance your vitality and improve the quality of your life.

There were testimonials.

Sound familiar?

Hadacol was the brainchild of former Louisiana state senator Dudley LeBlanc, who created the name from a former business, the Happy Days Co., maker of Happy Day Headache Powders.

Dudley, a self-promoter, promoted himself — first to grifter, then to scammer, and on up to swindler — a status he proudly acknowledged.

Groucho Marx was interviewing him on his radio show, “You Bet Your Life,” when he asked Dudley this question: “What is Hadacal good for?”

His spontaneous response caught everyone by surprise: “It was good for $5 million for me last year.”

That was all Hadacol was good for.

I’ve read you can’t believe everything you read, and I believe that’s true. Despite Sen. Dudley LeBlanc’s moment of verbal veracity, I also believe you can’t believe everything you hear.

So where does that leave us?

We used to be able to resolve these reading/hearing accuracy issues simply by looking. The exclamation “I saw it with my own eyes!” would usually settle the matter. After all, seeing is believing, right?

Not anymore.

Lewis Carroll warned us many years ago, “Beware the Jubjub bird.” There are strong indications the bird has arrived — but he’s hard to spot.

At this point, it would be appropriate for me to describe new deception methods made possible by artificial intelligence’s arrival. If I were qualified, I would — I’m not.

However, I am able to report that 5-year-olds will believe a trustworthy robot over an unreliable human — even if the robot is shaped like a truck (Harper’s Magazine, June 2023).

So there’s hope.

It is, therefore, with confidence that I have continued to rely on recognition skills taught me as a child, complemented by experiences gained in the field: those continuing education credits life’s deceptions and betrayals periodically provide.

Skills often needed.

Justin Hinkley, the News publisher/editor, recently editorialized concerning the city/township water and sewer dispute:

“It all began in 2014, when Alpena Township, which buys water and sewer services from Alpena, refused to pay a rate increase … That began nine years of lawsuits, countersuits, appeals, and cross-appeals that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in attorney and consulting fees.

“It’s been nearly two-and-a-half years since officials from Alpena and Alpena Township said in a joint letter to the community that they’d begun negotiations toward forming a water-sewer authority that would jointly oversee operations for both communities.

“Since then, silence (“It’s time to end water-sewer dispute,” The Alpena News, May 13, 2023).

The Township of Alpena/City of Alpena sewer-water conundrum has been allowed to sit and rot, fermenting in a vat of silence mixed in a slurry of dollars, a combination giving off an odor we learned to identify early in life, one that regularly marked us in our infancy.

Our sense of smell is a skill we must again primarily rely on for an explanation of this immutable situation in the absence of any oral or written justification.

It’s a capacity that earlier allowed us to detect the presence of an effluent — the rejection of the money-saving opportunity represented by the city’s fire protection offer to the township.

So what’s going on? Are intransigent personalities, petty jealousies, or unsatisfied ambitions festering in the wabe under a tumtum tree?

Justin said: “It’s long past time for officials to say something to the public about whether we can expect years more of this or if we’re close to a deal.”

I agree.

Those responsible should adopt the openness of Sen. Dudley LeBlanc when he revealed to the world the true nature of Hadacol — a source of money for Dudley.

Here, monetary motivation doesn’t seem to apply.

But, whatever the underlying cause for the continuation of the malodorous mixture that is our never-ending sewer-water dispute, it needs to be divulged.

It’s a disclosure that would provide a tonic for a cure improving the quality of our lives — one that should be made available as over-the-counter information.

Doug Pugh’s “Vignettes” runs monthly. He can be reached at pughda@gmail.com.