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A fracas over zebra milk


cdh

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I initially wanted to disbelieve the story based on the photo, which looked as if it were taken at a Wax Museum.

But yes, I do believe it.

...........................................

P.S. Actually, if that story were to be published in The Onion, I don't think anyone would even blink an eye. :biggrin: They just might not think it was "as funny" as it "should have been" - but it *is* quite close to parody. :huh:

Still, yes, I believe it. Lovely the stories life sends us. :laugh:

Edited by Carrot Top (log)
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Carrot Top, I would totally buy that as an Onion article as well. Just TOO bizarre!

Is zebra milk supposed to make your wrinkles go away or something? I don't understand the request.

-Sounds awfully rich!

-It is! That's why I serve it with ice cream to cut the sweetness!

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Aside from the fact I think it quite possible for someone to become as passionate about eating something difficult to procure (often this is about p o w e r) there is an active trade in London in bushmeat, which would lead me to believe that zebra milk *might* also be possible to procure.

Aiiieee. I understand the appeal of a broad palate, and I certainly get that wealth and power get exercised in sometimes funny ways. Regardless, not only does this menace dimishing wild populations, but it's also a fine way to get exposed to viruses one really doesn't wish to be introduced to, in even the most polite of company.

John

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Wow. Maybe not humor.

I got curious so looked up "zebra milk" in the Cambridge World History of Food. Although there were entries on many milks: alpaca, camel, cow, donkey, goat, human breast, llama, mare, reindeer, sheep, water buffalo, and yak - there was nothing on zebra milk.

I actually dreaded looking it up on the internet, fearful a bit of what sites might fall under the category. If you know what I mean. :smile: Phew.

But I did, and found that it appears that zebra milk is being considered (apparently, I am never really sure of fully understanding anything that is written about science or medicine) in cancer cures.

Here is one site that discusses this:Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients

We have put Helios Pharmacy on notice that as soon as a proving is done on zebra's milk, we are waiting to prescribe it (no joke)!

Wow. Now I am completely flummoxed. :shock: I have no idea what to think. :unsure:

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But I did, and found that it appears that zebra milk is being considered (apparently, I am never really sure of fully understanding anything that is written about science or medicine) in cancer cures.

Here is one site that discusses this:Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients

We have put Helios Pharmacy on notice that as soon as a proving is done on zebra's milk, we are waiting to prescribe it (no joke)!

Wow. Now I am completely flummoxed. :shock: I have no idea what to think. :unsure:

Well, the article you link to was written by a homeopath, not what most of us would consider a real doctor. FWIW, the vast majority of physicians and medical researchers do not consider homeopathy to have any kind of scientific basis, or homeopathic remedies to have any therapeutic efficacy beyond that normally associated with placebos.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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:biggrin: Yes, I realized that much at least - that it *was* written by a homeopathic group.

It seemed to bring me deeper and deeper into the Alice-in-Wonderland world that was started by looking at that scary original photo and the startling story about the zebra milk and the guy.

That paragraph about prescribing zebra milk to someone because they came in dressed all in black and white was uh. . .impressively surreal to me. :raz:

But then again, as they say "whatever floats your boat".

Phew.

Still, I love this topic. I'm so glad it was posted. :smile:

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I wonder if part of the appeal of Zebra milk is because it's high in unobtainium?

Zebras are notoriously bad tempered animals who can't be gentled like some wild animals, even bred in captivity they continue to spit bite kick and otherwise act like food critics until the day they die. :raz:

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I wonder if part of the appeal of Zebra milk is because it's high in unobtainium?

I am sure this is very relevant. Historically different milks were attributed with different values and therapeutic qualities. Asses milk was supposedly the best substitute for mother's milk, and mothers milk itself had a lot of therapeutic uses.

A couple of sixteenth century examples:

Mothers milk as a treatment for impotence:

Take Womans milcke, a rhennishe wine glassefulle, drincke it, & the loste senses will return agayne.

For obstructed labour.

For a woman her travayle to be easye, or to bringe forth her Childe with ease.

Give unto her without her knowledge an other woman’s milcke to drincke.

(An alternative remedy was to give her a draught of her husband’s urine to drink, which would have been "logical" at the time: one of his body fluids had put the child there, so another would help expel it. Or am I getting off topic here?)

But most interestingly,as a cure for consumption, especially effective if taken straight from the container. In a story related in Thomas Cogan’s Haven of Health (1584) he relates how not only was the Earle of Cumberland cured of the consumption by this method, he finally went on and got himself an heir (the story does not say who mothered that child!)

"Whereby it appeareth that Goates Mylke is principall in a consumption …. as Galen sayeth, because it is not so thinne as Camel’s mylke or Asses mylke, nor so fatte and thick as Cowe mylke or Sheepes mylke, yet common experience proveth that Womans mylke sucked from the brest is without comparison best of all in a consumption. Inherof a notable example was shewed of late yeres in the olde Earle of Cumberland, who being brough to utter weakness by a consuming fever, by meanes of a Womans sucke together with the good counsaile of learned Physicians, so recovered his strength, that before being destitute of heires male of his owne bodie, he gate that most worthie gentleman that nowe in inheritour both of his fathers vertues and honour."

Samuel Pepys repeated a similar tale in 1667 – with comments about the transfer of characteristics from the provider (as fitted with the prevailing medical theories of the day)

"On this occasion, Dr. Whistler told a pretty story related by Muffet, a good author, of Dr. Caius, that built Keys College; that, being very old, and living only at that time upon woman's milk, he, while he fed upon the milk of an angry, fretful woman, was so himself; and then, being advised to take it of a good-natured, patient woman, he did become so, beyond the common temper of his age. Thus much nutriment, they observed, might do. Their discourse was very fine; and if I should be put out of my office, I do take great content in the liberty I shall be at of frequenting these gentlemen's company"

Funny how the recipients of this treatment are all well-to-do old men. Funny how the prescribing practitioners were all men. Any comments on the gender issue here, Carrot Top?

Happy Feasting

Janet (a.k.a The Old Foodie)

My Blog "The Old Foodie" gives you a short food history story each weekday day, always with a historic recipe, and sometimes a historic menu.

My email address is: theoldfoodie@fastmail.fm

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it. N. Scott Momaday

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I still think the answer to all this really lies in the photograph that accompanied the story.

Look at the photograph.

Does anyone really believe after even the closest look that that guy is really *alive*?

I think Liza is applying the zebra milk to his complexion as enbalming device. And indeed she looks proud of her work as she gazes up at him.

Sigh. So romantic. :wub:

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I still think the answer to all this really lies in the photograph that accompanied the story.

Look at the photograph.

Does anyone really believe after even the closest look that that guy is really *alive*?

I think Liza is applying the zebra milk to his complexion as enbalming device. And indeed she looks proud of her work as she gazes up at him.

Sigh. So romantic.  :wub:

Maybe its not his embalmed look, maybe its his "assertive" behaviour that she finds sexy. It is clearly that this character trait is transmitted in the very milk that he is drinking (if they were correct in medieval times) as per Sam Salmon's observation on the personality of zebras.

I wonder if part of the appeal of Zebra milk is because it's high in unobtainium?

Zebras are notoriously bad tempered animals who can't be gentled like some wild animals, even bred in captivity they continue to spit bite kick and otherwise act like food critics until the day they die. :raz:

Although spitting, biting, and kicking are quite girly fighting tactics, aren't they?

Happy Feasting

Janet (a.k.a The Old Foodie)

My Blog "The Old Foodie" gives you a short food history story each weekday day, always with a historic recipe, and sometimes a historic menu.

My email address is: theoldfoodie@fastmail.fm

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it. N. Scott Momaday

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Maybe its not his embalmed look, maybe its his "assertive" behaviour that she finds sexy. It is clearly that this character trait is transmitted in the very milk that he is drinking (if they were correct in medieval times) as per Sam Salmon's observation on the personality of zebras.

Yes. . .rather goes along with humoral concepts, doesn't it. Foods that have certain personalities of their own attached to them which can then be transmitted to those that eat them. Yin/yang theory too, though that seems more complex to me, more difficult to grasp in full than the humoral concepts.

I spent my career feeding (mostly) men at table of this sort, though there were a few women here and there that peopled that world. Careful and planned useage of Power does go into how a meal is planned, served, and eaten, every step of the way. It is sort of like background music, and it can affect whatever is going on at the table between those dining in large and small ways. Fascinating in some ways. Yucky in other ways. Definitely Macchiavellian when done to the hilt.

Some men who wish to exercise power really focus on this, others might not. An issue of personal style and desires.

Mostly there were men at the table when I was there as executive chef. I do have a friend though, who as a private chef had to deal more with the female side of things, with dining at home (though needless to say often for business related dinners), and my understanding is that it can be quite as intensive, the power plays with food, with a female in charge who wishes to exercise power using food.

Doesn't surprise me a bit. :biggrin:

Only once saw one fellow who actually acted quite like a zebra - close to the kick bite spit thing. But he had a bad back so I had to forgive him. :wink: Treated him like a patient rather than as any other thing. That worked. :wink: (Strange that this wierd behavior never affected his career, he went on to be some Presidents's Something-or-Other in High Office.)

Edited by Carrot Top (log)
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