g.johnson

I think Lent and fish-Fridays are a little different. They are both a form of fasting; self-abnegation designed to concentrate the mind on the spiritual. They can be compared to activities like pilgrimage (especially if you do it on your knees), flagellation (only if you don’t enjoy it), wearing hair shirts, celibacy, self-castration and stylitism*. Given the universality of eating it would be odd if elements of this religious asceticism didn’t also touch on food. On the other hand dietary taboos** of Judaism seem much more fundamental to the religion. Mormons don't count. They're wacky. *Given that list, maybe I’ll convert. **Literally: forbidden, esp. because holy or unclean. (Chambers)

I assume that's addressed to me. I can think of no dietary taboos in the major christian sects*. There are rules about fasting at lent and the (now revoked) Roman prohibition on meat eating on Fridays (again a sort of fast). And Methodists and Mormons discourage drinking but that's more a distaste for intoxication than a taboo.

The hypothesis that dietary laws are universal is falsified by the absence of such laws in the religion with most members, christianity.

I am told by my Cavalier* gay friends that unsnipped has a certain cache, or at least novelty value, this side of the pond. * I.e., not Roundhead.

Having established my cultural sensitivity, can I ask if anyone finds dietary restrictions more pernicious than the ritual mutilation of male children?

As an aside, I have a question. Mark 5:11-13 What was a herd of pigs doing on the shores of Galilee in the first century CE*? * Common Era. Please note Johnsonian cultural sensitivity.

Call it France? And invade it, if you're German.

No, but it would lead me to question your sanity.

In some parts of Britain it was traditional for a ‘sin eater’ to eat a loaf of bread from the coffin and so take upon himself the deceased’s sins.

Sandwiches and cake are traditional in Britain, with tea. Usually very bad sandwiches made with Mother’s Pride (= Wonder Bread) and a single slice of tasteless boiled ham. If you are lucky you’ll get smoked salmon on Hovis (= wholewheat Wonder Bread). When we buried the father-in-law, though, we bought in a lot of Marks and Spencer (= erm, don’t know the equivalent. Sort of up-market supermarket + mid-market clothes store*.) finger food**. Indiany things and cheesy things. With a lot of whisky. Scotland, don’t ya know. *A concept that gets weirder the more I think about it. ** I suspect that this is a growing trend.

Wacky question: What would happen if you froze it?

But given that a single glass of alcohol can induce a grand-mal seizure in certain individuals (the number of people affected is minute - but I witnessed two such when I worked as an EEG tech) and I'm not talking about seizures induced by alcoholism but a sensitivity to alcohol, then I think it conceivable that even a minute amount can affect some individuals adversely. Similarly, sugar or chemicals very similar, occur in the tissue of human, but to diabetics, raise the level of sugar compounds above a certain threshold and they are in deep doo-doo. Alcohol is different since there’s none in the body normally. Glutamate exists in the body in quite high concentrations (I’d guess about millimolar from the spectrum) and the body tolerates it well. (Indeed, it’s necessary.) Diabetics only get into trouble when they eat relatively large quantities of carbs. So I’m doubtful that a tiny bit extra glutamate could cause a measurable reaction. I’m not saying it’s impossible (maintaining precise glutamate levels might be critical, for example) but my hunch is that it’s unlikely.

Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that occurs normally in the brain – the peaks marked Glx in this NMR spectrum represent both glutamate and the closely related glutamine. I guess it’s conceivable that additional glutamate could affect peripheral nerve function but I’m a little skeptical given the quantities involved.

We're planning to see Morvern Callar in the new year. It's showing at Cinema Village, opposite Strip House and just down the street from Gotham Bar and Grill.

The film I have most enjoyed (if that’s the right word) recently is Lynn Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, set in Glasgow during a (real) binmen’s strike when rubbish was piling up in the streets. Story of a young boy who accidentally drowns his best friend in the first scene. It gets more depressing from there. It’s like a Ken Loach movie with Tarkovsky as the cinematographer. Quite startling. A lot of drinking and there may have been a fish supper involved.

Geek and Freak.

What was the other book? Jocasta Innes's The Pauper's Cookbook, a student standby of my generation.

One of the two books I used when learning to cook was Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking. The lack of precision never bothered me. I actually find vague instructions liberating. When the recipe is precise I come over all anal and follow it to the letter. When the recipe is ‘a bunch’ of this and ‘a handful’ of that I feel freer to improvise.

I wouldn't have said there was much difference, but that aside, I'd guess that a relatively small fraction of total traffic travels by French autoroutes relative to that which travels by the interstates.

As I mentioned before, the US has a lower rate of fatalities per km travelled, which I think is the more meaningful statistic. Another factor is that the roads in the US are much better (straighter, multilane) than in Europe though that is double edged since it allows faster driving.

So they must have been, what, 200 years old at that point?

When you take into account distance travelled, everywhere comes out much closer* and France is higher than the US. *With the exception of Turkey which must be a typo.

Not to disparage Chef Oh, but he was competing against teams from East Lothian and Wales and he was beaten by the US Army.

If you'd let us borrow the Lynes boy for a few months, you could have FG in exchange.

I've never noticed his size because I'm always blinded by staring down at his glowing pate.