Finally! Those intrepid Blobologists have solved another one of those "mysteries of the deep." Turns out that the several-ton piles of blubber that have warshed up on various shores over the past century or so are not from a heretofore unknown creature dubbed "Octopus Giganteus." Instead, the fatty deposits are remnants of large whales and sharks, according to scientists-in-the-know.
One Mr. Ellis was heard to remark: "It may be the requiem for blobdom, but there are other possibilities in the sunless depths of the sea."
Speaking of excessive deposits of collagen, has anyone else noticed Courtney Love's lips lately?
Ok, that was cheap. But while I'm on the subject of fat, did you know that medieval monks in northern Europe consumed, on average, about 6000 calories a day? 4500 when "fasting?"
Philippa Patrick, a British historian, surmises that a monk's daily eating regimen would look something like this:
11am-1pm Three eggs, boiled or fried in lard. Vegetable porridge with beans, leeks, carrots and other produce of monastery garden. Pork chops, bacon, and mutton. Capon, duck and goose with oranges. Half pound of bread, to use as sop. Peaches, strawberries and bilberries with egg flan. Four pints of small (watery) beer.
4-6pm Mutton gruel with garlic and onions. Posset of egg, milk and figs. Venison with rowanberries, figs, sloes, hazelnuts and apple. Stewed eels, herring, pike, dolphin, lamphreys, salmon, cod and trout. Half pound of bread as sop, sometimes soaked in dripping or lard. Syllabubs of fruit. Four pints of ale. Flagon of sack or other French, Spanish or Portuguese wine.
4-6pm Mutton gruel with garlic and onions. Posset of egg, milk and figs. Venison with rowanberries, figs, sloes, hazelnuts and apple. Stewed eels, herring, pike, dolphin, lamphreys, salmon, cod and trout. Half pound of bread as sop, sometimes soaked in dripping or lard. Syllabubs of fruit. Four pints of ale. Flagon of sack or other French, Spanish or Portuguese wine.
Anyways, the scientific inquiry into the aforementioned beached blobs got me on something of a "scientific inquiry" kick. Go figure. Today I also ready about new scientific inquiries into "deja vu" and "stigmata," both of which are fascinating topics (although, to be honest, the stigmata inquiry isn't really all that scientific -- it's more or less governed by a healthy skepticism).
I could see where medieval monks would need to eat more calories than we do and still say that they ate the same, or less, than the non-Religious. (With a big R, doesn't that mean "monk-y?") They did quite a bit more physical labor than we do, today, and they also probably burned a lot of calories just keeping warm in those Northern European, drafty old monesteries. Brrrr.
Then again, they could just be chubby monks :)
Posted by
Meredith |
2:21 PM
Oh, ok, so I just read the article about the monks. I guess they *were* just chubby. Not too many boy "holy anorectics," huh?
Posted by
Meredith |
2:44 PM