Today in worst-case scenario history
My daughter e-mailed me this little gem with the subject line "Technically, it's a food piece."
It's the March 3 entry from her Worst-Case Scenario Daily Survival Calendar. I'm not sure what this has to do with survival, but ...
On this day in 1876, a shower of meat chunks, one to four square inches in size, rained down on Bath county in Kentucky. No one was injured by the falling meat, which had the appearance of beef (but tasted more like venison or lamb, according to sources). Numerous studies were done on the meat to ascertain what it was. Though early opinion was that it was no more than some sort of vegetable matter, it was determined that the samples studied were cartilage, lung tissue, and muscle. The final conclusion was that the meat had fallen from buzzards or vultures who vomited their meals while flying overhead.
Comments
Who on earth would eat something that fell from the sky, even if it did have "the appearance of beef"?
This is what struck me.
Posted by: AnneB | March 3, 2008 10:47 AM
Ewwwww! I wonder how much the "shower" consisted of? If it wasn't airsick vultures, maybe a deer hunt using dynamite went terribly awry? Ick....
Posted by: Dottie | March 3, 2008 10:48 AM
Best-Case Scenario..
Thirteen years ago a train derailed along the river across from our cottage. One of the boxcars contained wine. After the railroad did their minimal salvage operation we all took our boats over to the area and retrieved cases of wine from the water. I think it was Mondavi. It was a great summer season.
Posted by: Dave | March 3, 2008 11:18 AM
Reminds me of the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 that killed 21.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Molasses_Disaster
It's hard not to laugh about now.
Posted by: terriermom | March 3, 2008 11:34 AM
Back in my day, it rained meat. And we ate it or else we went hungry.
One time, my uncle was driving behind a big truck with chickens in cages. The truck hit a bump or something like that and one of the cages fell off.
My family ate good that night.
Posted by: Sam Sessa | March 3, 2008 11:51 AM
30,000 pounds of bananas...
Posted by: Rosebud (The Blogger Formerly Known as Janet) | March 3, 2008 12:05 PM
I knew no vegan could fill out those Dockers like that! Rock on, chicken plucker Sam!
Posted by: rokchik | March 3, 2008 12:09 PM
...and when there was no meat, we ate fowl and when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad and when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand.
Posted by: Bob W. | March 3, 2008 12:19 PM
Food blog serious eats taps baltimore writer to write about food:
http://feeds.seriouseats.com/~r/seriouseatsfeaturesvideos/~3/244882759/baltimore-cinghiale-and-2-amys.html
Posted by: ryan97ou | March 3, 2008 12:20 PM
Thanks for the link, ryan97ou. Laura Lippman is my favorite local writer and in my top 10 in general.
Posted by: Rosebud (The Blogger Formerly Known as Janet) | March 3, 2008 1:53 PM
Who on earth would eat something from the sky??? Maybe they thought it was manna.
Posted by: Robert of Cross Keys | March 3, 2008 2:41 PM
Who wouldn't eat something from the sky? Sweet Delaware Christ, if kebabs were falling from the sky and my 1850s scurvy-ass family was beuing peltd with it, I wouldn't care if it was the Devil's own sirloin, what a stoopid stoopid question! It was clearly UFOs trading for Bourbon. The Truth is out there and it wants sourmash!
Posted by: voodoopork | March 3, 2008 5:11 PM
The Trolley of Meat
back when everybody rode the streetcars
back when the butchers
worked here
but lived over there
there was the meat car
with men hanging onto straps
with bowling pin forearms
our dogs chased the streetcar
and we let them
we never witnessed the goings-on
in the sprawled buildings
beyond the guards and gates
I think our dogs knew
but didn’t care
or didn’t want us to worry
--Miodrag Pavlovic
Translated from the Serbian
Posted by: Owl Meat Gravity | March 3, 2008 5:50 PM
"No one was injured by the falling meat, which had the appearance of beef (but tasted more like venison or lamb ...)"
This reminds me--I finally braved the parking lot at Trader Joe's last week and bought some of the lamb that was so highly recommended. Fabulous! Tip for others--you can park right in front at 1 p.m. on a weekday!
Posted by: Dahlink | March 3, 2008 7:19 PM
Elizabeth, I think you may have been wrong about voodoopork having had his morning meds.
Well, see, that's what I meant. He had his MORNING meds and was quite articulate then.
Posted by: Hal Laurent | March 3, 2008 8:01 PM
He had his MORNING meds and was quite articulate then
Well, articulate by voodoopork standards. But point taken. :-)
Posted by: Hal Laurent | March 3, 2008 9:31 PM
This reminds me of the children's book
"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ".
Posted by: jane | March 4, 2008 6:27 AM
Articulate is, I guess, ephemeral.
Happy National Grammar Day!!!
Posted by: Rosebud (The Blogger Formerly Known as Janet) | March 4, 2008 7:16 AM
The following NY Times headline seemed to fit here:
Feet Wash Up on Canadian Beaches
Posted by: voodoopork | March 4, 2008 8:19 PM
Voodoo, what kind of serach do you use to come up with these things?
Posted by: Rosebud (The Blogger Formerly Known as Janet) | March 5, 2008 8:02 AM
Search? The New York Times, baby, the paper of record for all loose appendages. I don't look for weird, it just finds me. I've got enough body parts of my own that I don't know what to do with. I think Amanda will really like this belated Valentine's Day gift.
Posted by: voodoopork | March 5, 2008 11:03 AM
Forecast for Kentuckians: It's raining Subarus
Vultures Ripping Apart Roofs, Chewing Cars
BARTOW, Fla. -- Residents in a Polk County community are demanding help in getting rid of vultures that are ripping shingles off rooftops and chewing rubber linings of car doors and windows.
Posted by: It's raining voodoo pork | March 5, 2008 12:08 PM