Pluff Mud-Mud Treatments

Pluff mud has become much more than just a rich, organic material that feeds our crops. It has developed into an icon of the Lowcountry, something that says you’re here and you know it.

When Chris Fulks started Pluff Mud Properties, his property and management company, coming up with the name was natural.

“Pluff mud has kind of a cult following, and I wanted to key in on that,” Fulks says. “A woman from New York asked me why I would associate myself with such a disgusting smell. Obviously, I decided not to work with her.”

Those in the hospitality business want some of that Lowcountry connection as well. The Spa at the Inn at Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton developed an entire Lowcountry menu of treatments and treats, including one of their most popular – a palmetto pluff mud wrap.

“We sent an actual pluff mud sample to a laboratory and had them recreate it for us specifically, taking out anything harmful. They also dampened that harsh, fishy smell,” says Raye Fetzner, director of the spa.

The spa’s most popular couples treatment incorporates the pluff mud wrap. This private treatment is called Spa Boggin’, which begins with a detoxifying steam and piney sea salt exfoliation. Then the couple applies the pluff mud to each other and relaxes wrapped in linens. Champagne and strawberries or oysters are served while the couple soaks in a Spanish moss and citrus bath, and the finale is a massage. The whole treatment takes 2 1/2 hours.

“Couples love it,” Fetzner says. “We do between two and five spa boggins a week.”

Is pluff mud the mud of love? Should we even be asking if there is a “mud of love”? Who knows – it’s the Lowcountry after all.

Anna Nicole Smith Dead at 39

Reality star Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said.

Smith, 39, did not respond to CPR, and her boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, 38, was with her when she passed, her attorney, Ron Rale, told FOX News.

The former Playboy Playmate was found unresponsive Thursday in her Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino room in Hollywood, Fla.

Emergency responders performed CPR at the scene and a breathing apparatus was inserted in her throat, hotel officials told TMZ.com. Smith was immediately transported to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood just after 2 p.m. EST.

Local streets were closed off to rush Smith to the hospital, three miles away. Paramedics were seen pumping her chest as she was taken from the hotel.

Stern told "Entertainment Tonight" that her temperature was running high Wednesday night and that the couple had been in Florida shopping for a new boat.

"She checked in Monday at 8 p.m. as a guest. She was due to check out tomorrow," said Danielle Giordaano, a spokeswoman for the Hard Rock Hotel.

Look to the Future!

Maybe you're not overjoyed about how things worked out. There's nothing you can do about it now. If the past continues to haunt you, the only ways to change it are through rewriting your memories or blocking them out altogether. Shifting your focus would help a lot, too. Stop looking backward all the time. Turn your gaze to the future. Starting now, this is where you can make a difference. Let your previously learned lessons guide you without forcing your hand. Circumstances will be different every time. Respond to the current conditions and make something completely new.

Grey Day

Rain.  Looks like it is here to stay!  I just wish it were a little warmer.  I think I lost a pair of black leather gloves with fax trim at the cuffs.  I just love them and I was wearing them earlier this week.  Now they seemed to have disappeared.  I think it happened at the Food Lion.  I called there and of course they said they did not have them in their lost and found.  I will look again at home and in the car.  Man,  I hope I find them.  They were just great!