So which is he?
Picard or Sulu?....:)
Posted on 03/08/2006 3:09:40 PM PST by xcamel
So which is he?
Picard or Sulu?....:)
The sows were almost always having litters. They were very friendly, and were usually trying to get my attention so that I would scritch their tummies. They loved that. Their eyes would roll up in their heads and they would pass out completely.
One of the sows went insane (because of wild dogs killing two-thirds of one of her litters), and that sow would attack any non-pig in the pen. I really had to keep an eye out for her. She lived by herself (and litter) up in the wooded section of the pig pen, instead of the sheds with the rest of the sows. If she saw me in the pen, or anybody else for that matter, it was a race to the fence. That one would kill you if she caught you.
We had one truly massive boar. He was so big that he couldn't mount the sows. They would collapse if he tried. He dug a huge hole, and would push them over to the edge of it and knock them down at the top of the hole. Then he'd stand in the hole with his back feet, and on the top of the hole with his front feet, with the sow on the edge of the hole. Needs must, with a sow in heat. Didn't seem to bother the sows any.
He was mean to everybody but me. I brought the food, and he was very attached to his food supply. He loved me, and even let me scritch him down occasionally. He was taller than I was: I couldn't see over his back. When we finally had him butchered, he had 4-inch tusks, and dressed out at 850 pounds.
Good lord.
You've had some really *weird* pigs.....:))
You could make a movie out of it.
Additional Aztec/Mexico information.
The grand advisor to the Aztec chief several decades earlier had instituted a policy which greatly increased the enthusiasm of the surrounding tribes/cities/towns for assisting the Spaniards. Protein was always in short supply especially for a warrior people. They had turkey, fish, dogs, but nothing large like cattle. This grand advisor basically said "let us make tlaxcalla (and other places) our granery." He instituted a very systematic program of annual warfare in which thousands of captives were brought back to the capital, sacrificed by having their hearts cut out, then eaten by the citizens. I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall a number of 100,000 being the total number of Tlaxcallans killed and eaten over many years.
Two long contemporary accounts of the conquest are Cortez' "Five Letters to King Carlos V" of Spain, and the account written by one of his lieutenants Bernal Diaz. A Twentieth Century historical novel of that time is "Heart of Jade" by Salvador Madarriaga.
I spent one entire afternoon, wandering through the ruins and restorations of the old sacred city of Teotihuacan, about 30 miles outside of Mexico City (then known as Tenochtitlan). It was really a very large city, several miles along the main thoroughfare, and extending to the side a fair distance as well. Quite amazing.
German man feeds dead neighbor to pigs.
I once asked my younger son what he wanted done with his body when he died. He said, "Bury me in a pine box, under an apple tree on a hillside in a cow pasture." When I asked him why there, he replied, "Well, I've eaten enough of them in my day, it is only fair that they get to eat me." That is the grass and apples that would come from the roots nourished by his body.
I read once, (wish i had a link) about a man that was buried under an appeltree. For whatever reason they dug up the coffin years later, only to find that the coffin was empty except for some roots!
Then one person looked closely, and noticed that the many fine roots followed the human bloodcirculation..
The roots had penetrated the body and in the conditions of the soil + bacteria which had dissolved the skeleton, had completely absorbed the body through roots. And ofcourse the roots followed the path of the most nutrients, being our bloodstream. Cool huh?
Boy, wait til I tell my son about that. Actually, though, we will probably all be cremated and our ashes spread on what I hope will become ancestral land (I only bought it a few years ago)in West Virginia. There, the deer roam unimpeaded by fences, and there are oaks, not apple trees.
I kind of agree with that last statement.
Pigs are omnivores, that's for sure.
My great-great-grandmother was Blackfoot, but that isn't enough for me to check the "Native American" box.
I scalded my feet once.
I....just....ate......:-P
I buried my beloved dog and then planted an Arbor Vitae on her grave.
She's "in" the tree now.
I wish I could have such a good, sensible, useful burial.
I'll have to opt for ashes for anything comparable.
If I had my druthers, I'd just be left laying up on the ridge somewhere.
Crows gotta eat same as worms....:)
If you ever get to the Smithsonian don't miss the 'soap guy'.
He was a Revolutionary war soldier [if memory serves aright] who buried in limestone soil and all the fat in his body turned to soap.
Grossest thing you'll ever see but amazing nonetheless.
I suppose it stayed nice and clean then.
My high school best friend took me to see that.
It was at first unrecognizable.
I was literally bent over the glass case [it's on the floor] with my nose pressed against the glass trying to figure out WTH that 'moldy cottage-cheese lump in a suit' thing was.
My friend then informed what I was studying from a distance of about 6 inches and up until that moment, I didn't know I could jump bolt upright, skitter away and squeal at the same time.
[it is HORRIBLE looking and "nice and clean" are not words that leap to mind]....;-D
So i guess you wouldn't wash you're hands with it? :)
Well dead people tend to look horrible, but you make it sound worse than average! I'll look it up on the internet.
Imagine a vaguely human-shaped giant blob of filthy, crusty, lumpy, horribly discolored Ivory soap wearing a moldy, tattered uniform and you've just about got it right.
I tried Googling for him but I'm not even sure what search terms to use.
"Soapy soldier"?
"Foamy mummy"?
I admit I'm stumped and I got no results.
The Smithsonian site is stingy with their exhibit info so they were no help either.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuughh!
My *eyes*!!!!
Ugh.
That brings back [very bad] memories.
North America: Soap Mummies
QUESTION from Calvin: My sister told me that NC (where I live) is the home of soap mummies. She told me that the proper equation was an obese person, the soil of the Piedmont area, proper moisture, the person to have been in clothes and either no coffin or perhaps a primitive coffin. She said that with the humidity here and all those other ingredients that the people literally turned into soap and were mummified. Is this true? I've tried to look it up but have not been successful. Thanks again. ANSWER FROM THE MUMMY MASTER: I don't know if NC is the "home" of soap mummies--they have been found many places. They are mummies that have been produced by the formation of adipocere. According to Christine Quigley's Modern Mummies, "adipocere is a waxy or greasy decomposition product resulting from chemical changes in soft tissues under conditions of high humidity and high environmental temperature"--like NC in the summer? These mummies have been found in other places too including underwater. According to scientists, fatty acids combine with sodium to form "hard soap" (quite crumbly)--later potassium can be added to the mix and turn the hard soap into "soft soap" (more like toothpaste). Some adipocere mummies look pretty good (though not like artificially-made mummies in Egypt or South America), but most are pretty gross. Quigley's book includes one photo on page 23.
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