I don't think there are many weird-news-themed beers. But back in March, Cigar City Brewing of Tampa created a special batch of Florida Man beer. It's an IPA with hints of grapefruit, mango and passion fruit. However, they made only 3,000 bottles that sold for $9 each at select retail locations in Florida. So probably all gone.
Are there any other foods or beverages named after weird-news themes?
The Bible contains only one full recipe, which is given to Ezekiel by God (Ezekiel 4:9):
Take you also to you wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make you bread thereof… And you shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it with dung that comes out of man.
So you gotta bake it with human poop, which means it might not be to everyone's taste. Though God subsequently relented and allowed Ezekiel to substitute cow dung.
This was one of the recipes explored by the Rev. Rayner Hesse and Anthony Chiffolo in their book Cooking With the Bible (it came out in 2006), in which they set out to recreate the various meals and foods that appear throughout the Bible. Apparently they cooked up some Ezekiel bread, as an experiment, and Hesse said it tastes "like moldy bean sprouts." But he added, "You don't want to eat it. Never, ever. Let me emphasize that: Never."
Other treats to be found in the book include Locust Soup, and Locusts and Honey. More info at the LA Times.
Watch model and competitive eater Nela Zisser eat a 2 lb burrito in one minute and 44 seconds. As I watched, all I kept thinking was, "she's gonna bite off her fingers!"
Browsing through the municipal code of La Mesa, CA (it's a suburb of San Diego and also happens to be the fine town that I call home), I came across this unusual law:
Every person who transports a commercial quantity of avocados shall cause a statement of ownership to be prepared and retained in his personal possession at all times while transporting said avocados...
"Commercial quantity of avocados" shall mean any quantity of avocados in excess of forty (40) pounds exclusive of the container...
Any peace officer, upon probable cause to believe a person is transporting a commercial quantity of avocados, may stop such person and inspect such avocados, whereupon, the statement of ownership described in Section 10.70.030 shall be presented to said peace officer upon request.
Any peace officer, upon reasonable belief that a person is not in legal possession of a commercial quantity of avocados, may seize such avocados without warrant. Upon seizure the peace officer shall take custody of the avocados and turn the same over to the custody of the Chief of Police.
Obviously we take avocados seriously out here. I wonder if the same rule applies to guacamole.
Perhaps you weren't eating bugs because it wasn't easy enough to prepare them. Well, now there's the Entopod. Designed by Edinburgh student Courtney Yule, the Entopod is a "starter kit" for eating bugs. It includes a grinder for making insect flour, detachable containers for heating the insecto-food in the oven, and more! She hopes it will encourage people to experiment with "entomophagy." More info at BBC News.
In this 1910 experiment, nine musicians played the "Blue Danube" waltz and other selections while farm hands milked 61 Jerseys and Holsteins.
The result: "The music calmed the nerves of the cows and their udders let down all the milk in them." Also, this milk "tasted better and had a more happy effect upon the drinkers than the milk served which had not been 'music impregnated.'"
Why aren't the upscale food stores of today (like Whole Foods) selling music-impregnated milk? I'm sure there are people who would spend the extra money for it.
Source: The Louisiana Comrade - Aug 26, 1910; also printed in the Red Lake Falls Gazette (1910).
Turns out there are no laws in the U.S. specifically outlawing cannibalism, except in Idaho, which has this statute on the books:
TITLE 18
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
CHAPTER 50
MAYHEM
18-5003. CANNIBALISM DEFINED -- PUNISHMENT. (1) Any person who wilfully ingests the flesh or blood of a human being is guilty of cannibalism.
(2) It shall be an affirmative defense to a violation of the provisions of this section that the action was taken under extreme life-threatening conditions as the only apparent means of survival.
(3) Cannibalism is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding fourteen (14) years.
What's going on in Idaho that inspired this law? A 2011 article in the Journal of Law and Social Deviance explains:
In Idaho, anthropophagy (called cannibalism by statute) is illegal. The statute makes it an offense to drink human blood or consume human flesh, punishable by up to fourteen years in prison. The law was conceived in 1990 as a response to fears that ritualized practices involving sexual abuse and torture of minors would include anthropophagy. The legislators criminalized the consumption of human blood and flesh out of a concern that children would be sacrificed, eaten, or forced to consume the tissue of murdered or necrotic bodies during ritual practices.
But what about placenta-eating (a practice that's been discussed a number of times here on WU)? Wouldn't the Idaho statute make this practice illegal? Yes, technically it would. But the same article argues that if Idaho ever tried to send anyone to prison for placenta eating (or any other non-harmful, consensual form of cannibalism — ingesting blood, etc.), their statute would probably be ruled unconstitutional as it violates a fundamental "right to privacy."
Posted By: Alex - Sat May 02, 2015 -
Comments (9)
Category: Food, Law
Here is a new post that joins two previous ones: my post with the video about the PICKLE INDUSTRY, and Alex's post about MISS KANGAROO.
It appears that at least since 1964, the union known as the Pickle Packers International has been choosing a woman to be "Miss Pickle."
The first foto below comes from THE DAILY EGYPTIAN for October 30, 1964. The second foto comes from the BUFFALO COURIER-EXPRESS for June 24, 1967, while the article comes from the TUSCALOOSA NEWS for May 7, 1967.
[Click text to enlarge]
Finally, we come to Miss Pickle of 2014, who seems more like a cartoon company mascot than a beauty-queen.
Alas, in this less-innocent year of 2015, anyone soliciting a "gaytime raspberry rough" and expecting an ice cream treat is likely to get something different than they anticipated.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.