Shallow Thought Wednesday
While I'm thrilled at the following account of my bravery by Multimedia Editor and Resident Cheeseburger, Wings, Crab Balls, Tiramisu and Abalone Expert John Lindner, I'm glad he didn't notice that the day I was off was coincidentally Magnificent Monday, the day all 16 men and women left in the draw played their quarterfinal matches at Wimbledon.
Here's John's shallow thought on today's deep topic...death.
"I thank you all.
Why?
It occurred to me recently that the Elizabethans are literally (literally) risking their very lives to engage, entertain, and inform one and all who visit the D@L greatest food blog on earth and beyond.
Really? How so?
By eating, of course.* Case in point: A week or two ago, our EL was forced to stay home because of an illness which she attributed to food poisoning. See where I'm going with this? Now, EL is a professional. She's paid to shrug off hazards of the game.**
You Elizabethans, on the other hand, eat freely, often at your own expense, thereby exposing yourselves to endless chance encounters with illness and even death.
So here's to you daredevils, you bacon eaters, you butter lovers, you carefree creme-crammers. May your bad cholesterol remain ever low. Thanks for your many sacrifices.
* The abalone, killer of the deep (from Foodreference.com): 'The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbor a poisonous substance which causes a burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest itself until exposure to sunlight -- if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur quickly and suddenly. Skin lesions may occur on body parts exposed to the sunlight. It is believed the toxin may come from seaweed ingested by the abalone.'
** Full disclosure: I can't imagine the agony EL must have been suffering that day. For I know her to regularly 'play hurt.' Therefore I can only conclude that her recent bout of food poisoning must have been near fatal. I, on the other hand and by comparison, have been known to skip important deadlines at the hint of cholera, dengue fever, or the plague. She shames me."
(Caviar and lobster with abalone and vinaigrette jello is served at Rosanjin, a Japanese restaurant on Duane Street in New York on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. Photographer: Tom Starkweather/Bloomberg News)
Categories: Shallow Thought Wednesdays
Comments
I guess I missed EL's food poisoning somehow. Hope you have your game face back, Lady E.
To think that I regularly ate abalone as a carefree California kid and never knew I was risking death ... or at least a bad sunburn.
Posted by: Dahlink | July 9, 2008 6:26 AM
"Swallowing small amounts of slavia over a long period of time can prove fatal" G.Carlin
Posted by: Hue | July 9, 2008 8:24 AM
EL must have contracted the food poisoning in Tennessee. Couldn't possibly have gotten in around here.
Posted by: Federal Hill Jim | July 9, 2008 11:57 AM
Not sure where to post this, so I'm going with the shallow thought category. I just won a free book over on the Read Street blog. Now I love this blog but I've never won a darn thing here. What's up with that?
I guess you don't comment often enough. EL
Posted by: Dahlink | July 9, 2008 3:12 PM
Someone please remind me where we are in the cycle ... is coffee good for you this week or not?
Posted by: MD Canon | July 9, 2008 4:12 PM
Coffee is never good for you. It does strange things to you, like waking you up and making you seem sober. Do you really want to go through life wide awake and sober?
Posted by: Retired in Elkridge | July 9, 2008 6:05 PM
And I forgot what my DW tells me: you're not buying coffee, you're only leasing it. Especially if you're taking water pills. Personally, I like my caffeine cold and carbonated, no cream, no sugar.
Posted by: Retired in Elkridge | July 9, 2008 6:07 PM
Can food poisoning really kill you? I've known many people who have gotten food poisoning but I've never heard of anyone dying from it.
My biggest fear about food poisoning is that it will take a day or so to develop, then when it does, my brain will associate the symptoms--the vomiting and other nasty stuff--with the wrong food.
You know how your brain does that? How it makes a connection between two things and then for the rest of your life, those two things are associated with each other?
I'm afraid I'll eat some bad macaroni salad on, say, Sunday and then after lunch on Monday, when I'm eating a hot fudge sundae for dessert, the nasty food poisoning sysmptons will arise.
My brain will associate "vomiting" with "hot fudge" and for the rest of my life, whenever I pass a Baskin-Robbins, I'll start feeling queasy. That would be horrible. I could live the balance of my life without macaroni salad, but without hot fudge?
Can food poisoning really kill you?
Inquiring minds want to know. This internet thing is really cool, isn't it?
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/Vol5no5/mead.htm
EL
Posted by: Bucky | July 9, 2008 6:26 PM
Wow...that's scary. Do you think a venti espresso would kill all that stuff?
Posted by: Bucky | July 9, 2008 6:52 PM
Yes, food poisoning can really kill you. Botulism, especially, is nasty, nasty stuff.
But, dihydrous monoxide can kill you, too.
Posted by: Lissa | July 9, 2008 8:05 PM
Bucky the solution is to have a little bourbon with your meal, the alcohol will kill all the bad stuff that might end up in your tummy.
Posted by: Bourbon Girl | July 9, 2008 8:29 PM
Lissa: You crack me up.
Bourbon Girl: OK, now is that really true? Because I might do that, just to be on the safe side, after reading EL's CDC offering. Not that I'm paranoid or anything.
Posted by: Bucky | July 9, 2008 9:08 PM
Bucky, it will also kill the bad stuff that might end up in your mind, too. Back to the 2 stone philosophy, and anaesthesia.
BTW, is it just me or has the sandbox lost a certain edge recently?
I want to know about that crazy happy banana thing.
Posted by: Bourbon Girl | July 9, 2008 9:33 PM
My brother's doctor is adamant about not using salad bars. My brother doesn't use them now, and tried to get me to stop. It is said that they are full of horrible germs that cause severe food poisoning.
If you don't use the salad bar, then you eat food high in cholesterol and die from that.
Me, I'll take my chances. It hasn't killed me yet.
Posted by: Susan WNAJ | July 9, 2008 10:05 PM
Bucky asked "Can food poisoning really kill you?" I'm guessing he's never really had a case of food poisoning or he would know that if you don't die from it, you'll wish you were dead.
Posted by: Dahlink | July 9, 2008 10:12 PM
Dahlink,
You got that right.
About 70 of us stationed on a Navy ship got food poisoning from food the Navy bought from a local purveyor in Bahrain. It was a rough day and a half.
Posted by: Rob in PCB FL | July 10, 2008 9:41 AM
You're correct, Dahlink, I don't believe I've ever had food poisoning, per se.
I once got caught in the mountains at sunset and rather than try to walk out in the dark, I hunkered down for the night. I made the mistake of drinking water from a creek and regretted that for a week.
That was probably a form of food poisoning, is my guess.
Posted by: Bucky | July 10, 2008 9:48 AM
RinPCB and Bucky--Poor babies!
Posted by: Dahlink | July 10, 2008 7:40 PM
thanks Dahlink,
I make it a point of never eating Mystery Meat lunchmeat now.
Bucky,
Perhaps you contracted giardia lamblis, or beaver fever. Nasty stuff for sure.
Back when I lived in MD, we went camping a lot in the northeast and never drank the spring waters.
Posted by: Rob in PCB FL | July 10, 2008 10:48 PM
The last time I had food poisoning it was from some pate we had been given as a thank you for hosting a neighborhood wine tasting.
My sister survived the Oakland fire years ago. They were kept away from home for several days while the fires raged. When she came back home, everything looked fine. She ate some leftovers in the fridge, only to find out later that the power had only just come back on. Whopper of a case of food poisoning from that episode, but she kept her house while people half a mile away lost everything.
Posted by: Dahlink | July 11, 2008 6:51 AM
Rob: I actually knew better than to drink that water, but I was very thirsty, was going to be there all night and had a long hike out in the morning. I was at about 10,000 feet, so I chanced it.
Dahlink: is it even possiblle to tell when pate has gone bad?
Posted by: Bucky | July 11, 2008 8:14 AM