(1) “A Halloween garden gnome” is what John King Tarpinian calls one of the pieces Tokyo University of Arts students created for a festival —
This massive work of art, which features a giant octopus wrapped around a Greek-style temple, has captured the attention of people across Japan. Now that the festival is over, though, the students are asking if anyone wants to buy it!
More photos of the work on parade at the Rocket News 24 website.
(2) Of course, being scientists, these folks had to do what every science fiction fan knows better than to do — revive the ancient giant virus.
It’s 30,000 years old and still ticking: A giant virus recently discovered deep in the Siberian permafrost reveals that huge ancient viruses are much more diverse than scientists had ever known.
They’re also potentially infectious if thawed from their Siberian deep freeze, though they pose no danger to humans, said Chantal Abergel, a scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research at Aix-Marseille University in France and co-author of a new study announcing the discovery of the new virus. As the globe warms and the region thaws, mining and drilling will likely penetrate previously inaccessible areas, Abergel said.
“Safety precautions should be taken when moving that amount of frozen earth,” she told Live Science. (Though viruses can’t be said to be “alive,” the Siberian virus is functional and capable of infecting its host.)
…The new virus isn’t a threat to humans; it infected single-celled amoebas during the Upper Paleolithic, or late Stone Age.
(3) Next step, Wolverine? Claws still required, and it’s titanium not adamantium, but… a Spanish hospital recent replaced a significant amount of a man’s rib cage and sternum with a titanium replacement.
Putting titanium inside people’s chests is nothing new, but what made this different was the implant was 3D printed to match his existing bone structure.
(4) Lost In Space first got lost on September 15, 1965. The Los Angeles Times visited with some of the original cast.
Fifty years after the CBS sci-fi series “Lost in Space” blasted into orbit on Sept. 15, 1965, the show’s five surviving stars are still very close. A few gather each year to have dinner to celebrate the birthday of Jonathan Harris, the late actor who played the diabolical and very funny Dr. Zachary Smith.
“We have stayed very much like a normal dysfunctional family,” said Bill Mumy, who played child prodigy Will Robinson during the series’ three-season run.
Baby boomers who grew up watching “Lost in Space” still have a strong connection to the campy show, which boasted a terrific early score from Oscar-winner John Williams, then billed as Johnny Williams.
“When I do these conventions, people are still so wrapped up in it,” said June Lockhart, who played matriarch Maureen Robinson. “The last time I did one, I said, ‘Excuse me.’ I looked out at the audience and said, ‘I must remind you: It was all pretend!'”
“Lost in Space” was created and produced by Irwin Allen, who went on to make such disaster film classics as “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972) and “The Towering Inferno” (1974).
The series revolved around the Robinson family — John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife (Lockhart) and their children Judy (Marta Kristen), the brilliant Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Will.
On the anniversary date, Cartwright and Mumy released a new book, Lost (and Found) in Space, a memoir with rare photographs.
(5) Steven H Silver recreates a convention report of the 1976 Worldcon in Kansas City in “A Brief History of MidAmeriCon” at Uncanny Magazine.
Early projections seemed to indicate that Big MAC would have as many as 7,000 members and the committee knew they couldn’t handle a con that size. To ensure it didn’t happen, they introduced the sliding rate scale, making the con more expensive the later a fan bought a membership, they announced that they would not run an all–night movie room, and they also announced there would be no programming related to comic books, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, or the Society for Creative Anachronism. All of these decisions were met with howls of protest. MidAmeriCon was clearly attempting to destroy fandom and the Worldcon.
Keller was also concerned that people would crash MidAmeriCon, so prior to the convention, he announced that the convention would have a foolproof way of ensuring that only paid members were in attendance. There was much speculation prior to the Worldcon that this meant holograms on the badges. Keller had something else in mind and each attendee was given a plastic bracelet that could not be put on again once it was taken off. Of course, foolproof doesn’t mean fanproof, and some fans set themselves the goal of subverting the security measure. They found a woman who was being released from the hospital and convinced her to continue to wear her hospital ID, so they could try to bring her to the various official functions of the convention. They succeeded.
(6) People are still hard at work mapping what parts of the universe SFWA controls.
…and yet again: pic.twitter.com/rrI8qPObo6
— Steven Gould (@StevenGould) September 4, 2015
(7) Ursula K. Le Guin is interviewed by Choire Sicha at Interview Magazine.
SICHA: There’s a sort of growing professional class of writers that may not have had access to being a professional. Before the internet, you would go to your terrible job and then you would write at night. I actually found that system really rewarding, separating out the money and the work.
LE GUIN: On the other hand, if it was a nine-to-five job, and if you had any family obligations and commitments, it’s terribly hard. It worked very much against women, because they were likely to have the nine-to-five job and really be responsible for the household. Doing two jobs is hard enough, but doing three is just impossible. And that’s essentially what an awful lot of women who wanted to write were being asked to do: support themselves, keep the family and household going, and write.
SICHA: And the writing was the first thing to go when things got tough, I’m sure.
LE GUIN: I had only a little taste of that. I did have three kids. But what my husband and I figured—he was a professor and teaching a lot—was that three jobs can be done by two people. He could do his job teaching, I could do my job writing, and the two of us could do the house and the kids. And it worked out great, but it took full collaboration between him and me. See, I cannot write when I’m responsible for a child. They are full-time occupations for me. Either you’re listening out for the kids or you’re writing. So I wrote when the kids went to bed. I wrote between nine and midnight those years. And my husband would listen out if the little guy was sick or something. It worked out. It wasn’t really easy but, you know, you have a lot of energy when you’re young. Sometimes I look back and I think, “How the hell did we do it?” But we did.
(8) A Kickstarter appeal seeks to fund the printing of 5,000 copies of Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach Tolerance and Promote Social Justice by David Pilgrim.
David Pilgrim is the founder and curator of the About the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI.
For many people, especially those who came of age after landmark civil rights legislation was passed, it is difficult to understand what it was like to be an African American living under Jim Crow segregation in the United States. Most young Americans have little or no knowledge about restrictive covenants, literacy tests, poll taxes, lynchings, and other oppressive features of the Jim Crow racial hierarchy. Even those who have some familiarity with the period may initially view racist segregation and injustices as relics of a distant, shameful past. A proper understanding of race relations in this country must include a solid knowledge of Jim Crow—how it emerged, what it was like, how it ended, and its impact on the culture.
Understanding Jim Crow introduces readers to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, a collection of more than ten thousand contemptible collectibles that are used to engage visitors in intense and intelligent discussions about race, race relations, and racism. The items are offensive. They were meant to be offensive. The items in the Jim Crow Museum served to dehumanize blacks and legitimized patterns of prejudice, discrimination, and segregation.
Using racist objects as teaching tools seems counterintuitive—and, quite frankly, needlessly risky. Many Americans are already apprehensive discussing race relations, especially in settings where their ideas are challenged. The museum and this book exist to help overcome our collective trepidation and reluctance to talk about race.
(9) In “An Interview With Jennifer Brozek” at Permuted Press, the author and editor is unflinching, positive and brave.
Permuted: With the Hugo Awards sparking so much debate this year, do you have any thoughts on the controversy in general as a nominated editor?
Jennifer: Awards are a funny thing. I’m honored to have been nominated. I’m glad my part in the controversy is over. I’m also really pleased that there is a renewed interest in the Hugo award itself. Talk about an adrenalin shot in the arm.
Permuted: Your protagonist in the NEVER LET ME series, Melissa, has bipolar disorder. Can you describe your experience writing a character with a mental illness?
Jennifer: As a high functioning autistic adult, I am very aware of how people in media are portrayed. Either the mental illness is a superhero power (Alphas, Perception) or it makes a person a psychopathic criminal. It is rarely shown in-between. It is rarely shown as it really is—something millions of people deal with every single day. There are a lot of physical aspects to mental illness as well as coping mechanisms. With Melissa, I wanted to show a protagonist who had mental illness but it was neither a “power” nor something that made her unable to cope with the world. She is medicated and it works. This is the goal of every person suffering from mental illness on meds.
(10) Light in the Attic Records has released soundtrack to the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune. It is available in 2xLP and CD.
This is the soundtrack to the story about the greatest film that never was.
Jodorowsky’s Dune tells the tale of cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unsuccessful attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel, Dune, to the big screen. Composer Kurt Stenzel gives life to a retro-futuristic universe as fantastic as Jodorowsky’s own vision for his Dune–a film whose A-list cast would have included Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, and Mick Jagger in starring roles and music by psychedelic prog-rockers Pink Floyd.
Building upon director Frank Pavich’s idea for a score with a “Tangerine Dream-type feel,” Stenzel lays out a cosmic arsenal of analog synthesizers that would make any collector green at the gills: among other gems are a rare Moog Source, CZ-101s, and a Roland Juno 6, as well as unorthodox instruments like a toy Concertmate organ and a Nintendo DS. “I also played guitar and did vocals,” says Stenzel, “some chanting… and some screaming, which comes naturally to me.” The score also features narration by Jodorowsky himself. As Stenzel notes, “Jodo’s voice is actually the soundtrack’s main musical instrument–listening to him was almost like hypnosis, like going to the guru every night.”
[Thanks to Rob Thornton, Will R., Mark, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kendall.]
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Tasha
I do feel that we need to think about things; I confess that the reminder that Stapphire and Steele are still out there in a very uninspiring diner has fuelled my doubts, but I feel we need to give the time travel rather more careful consideration than we have so far given it.
Of course, advanced technology is capable of wonderful things, though they tend not to be not as wonderful as they may seem; my proud battle cry of ‘Better deaf than dead’ accepts that oto-toxic antibiotics have done major damage to my hearing, and it is in the ranges which most affect human speech. Even with the best tech there is, human on human, against a background of other human conversation, is hugely difficult and none of the tech people thinks there’s a major breakthrough down the line.
I think that all of us who bother to pay attention to the tech people know this: it’s people who don’t have a problem who have a very exaggerated idea of what the tech can do.
So here we are, accepting our temporal relocation with commendable sangfroid, as well as esprit de corps, but I do wonder whether we should, perhaps, be setting up a working party to discuss this.
It’s either that or taking a more direct approach to Mike: painted for war, loaded for bear, though obviously politely, to ascertain whether he’s as bewildered as we are, in which case we can go forward in a spirit of solidarity, one for all, and all for one.
This is particularly helpful because, whilst I’m not D’Artagnan, the only sport I was ever any good at was fencing, and I therefore feel pretty relaxed as long as I’ve got a sword in my hand. Admittedly there are people who don’t feel relaxed when I have a sword in my hand, but you can’t please everybody…
@RedWombat
Yes, File770 has been absolutely lovely for fannish connection. I used to be more active in TWFandom, but then I dropped out for various reasons, most of which are labeled ‘health’ – and having a fannish home again has been wonderful. I would group hug/puppy pile/make sincere affectionate gestures from a comfortable personal space distance with Filers any day.
@Stevie
Noooo the time travel is brilliant! Who doesn’t want to be mildly dislocated in time? (Maybe there will be collegen-fixing gene therapy eventually?)
Have you had a go at sign language at all? I’m dreadful at learning movements without considerable repetition but I guess it would be better in crowded rooms, if somewhat limiting with people options. I’d like to think conventions set up hearing loops for hearing aids for panels, but perhaps I’m being overly optimistic there.
Meredith
So far it’s been the polite listening, the polite request to repeat, whereupon I haven’t a clue, smile and nod, and hope lke hell I haven’t just agreed that shovelling all refugees into the sea is a sound plan.
Sign language is a complex and living language and I’m useless at learning languages; I can manage rudimentary lip reading, in the sense that it’s far easier if I can see their face. But hearing aids aren’t magic; I’m getting two new ones in October, and I’m really looking forward to pimping them. Me and pink plastic do not go together…
@Stevie
Pimping equipment is fun. I’m trying to get a new wheelchair at present (with not all that much success – the wheelchair service is horribly overburdened) which means I spend a fair amount of time looking at colour samples and cushion accessories.
Meredith
That’s a definite bummer; judging from today’s article about the vast sums of money spent on new cancer drugs without any check on whether they do any good, it looks as if they are dumping the disabled in favour of ‘We have Wonderful Science which is Obviously Wonderful Because it’s so Expensive!”
As I say, a total bummer. I must try to get some sleep, but I shall have my fingers crossed for the elusive wheelchair…
Something Worldcon was doing (at least for the business meeting) was something called “CART”; “Communication Access Realtime Translation”, AKA computer created real-time captioning. Smartphones are getting smart enough to make me wonder if anyone’s been developing aps for real-time conversational captioning?
@Stevie
I have many and often angry opinions about the state of disability in the UK, but I also need to do that sleeping thing at some point so I’ll spare everyone. 🙂
That was Clarion for me. Happiest time of my life.
(time to Stalk the God)
Kendall: (time to Stalk the God)
Oh, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT EARWORM!
Now you’ve got me Stalking the Dinosaur. >:(
Walk the god? What? 😀
Kendall: Walk the god? What?
Well, you know, here on File770, it’s all Stalking Gods, and Fifthing Chapters, and SJWing Siameses, and Loving Dinosaurs, and permutations thereof…
@RedWombat Re:fandom,
SFF (and comics) have been an important part of my life for a very long time but I’ve mostly felt associated with but not fully immersed in fandom: I’ve been to only a handful of cons and only one Worldcon, most of my fanac has been online, so it’s never felt like I eat, drink & breathe fandom, and therefore my self-assessment is that I’m not a proper fan.
But given that I co-signed “E pluribus Hugo” earlier this year, it’s hard to argue the point anymore. I might still get insecure about whether I’m a real fan or not, but that’s on me. I guess ultimately, if you feel like a fan, then you are a fan.
Soon Lee: my self-assessment is that I’m not a proper fan.
You’re a Filer now. You can run from fandom, but you can’t hide… 😉
Yes, they are. I don’t happen to use one, but it’s a known problem that is being worked on. Google and Skype both do real-time translation (works better on grammatically similar languages) speech-to-speech; speech-to-same-language-text is a strictly easier problem.
It’s the year 4392, you are “One of us”
or…
“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…”?
We’re all in it together.
::god stalk::
RedWombat, for what it’s worth, even if you feel like an imposter at conventions, I for one was very glad you were at Windycon last year.
You may remember me; I fangirled at you. <blush>
I don’t think the CART at the Business Meeting was entirely computer generated — I saw a woman with a stenotype keyboard there. I think she was typing in a phonetic record, and then a computer system was converting to normal text. The result looks a lot like a pure computerized speech-to-text, except that the computer doesn’t have to be able to recognize phonemes.
@ Stevie – You have pretty much described my coping strategy. I’m only at 30% hearing loss, which my doctor explained was like having earplugs in All the time but it’s not gonna get any better. I had no idea how much I was lip reading until I realized that if I wasn’t looking at the TV as people were talking, it became white noise unless I cranked it. I couldn’t watch tv and work on something else anymore. I gave up and just keep the radio turned way up.
The downside is that it is damn near impossible for me to lip-read kids–there’s a couple factors involved, but apparently I’m not alone–and having school visits as a major part of my job, my contract for appearances now includes that I’ll get an adult to take and restate questions if the acoustics in a room are bad. (I can do libraries, but can’t do gymnasiums at all.)
Hearing aid technology advances so quickly that my doctor actually said that it’s worth my while to muddle through for a few more years, and then we can check some options, but the amplify-everything of most hearing aids would be horrific in a gymnasium full of kids, so there are limits.
@Cassy B – *waves frantically*
I look forward to fangirling Ursula at the earliest opportunity.
ETA: That isn’t intended to sound stalkery or ominous. I just think she’s awesome.
Remember that if your locale includes some kind of exotic weird food that Ursula probably hasn’t encountered before, and it’s available in nice secure packaging so that it can be transported back home safely, you can earn yourself a moment’s glory with something that’ll be fodder for Kevin & Ursula Eat Cheap.
/ducks before getting struck by a flying antacid bill
Since I live in GA, I suspect that all our local weird food is also familiar to Ursula and Kevin by now.
For those who want to experience perhaps a bit TOO much Lost In Space nostalgia -http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/10/monsters-lost-space-season-1/
Whoops, once again, wrong thread.
So, um, yeah, weird food. Weirdest food I ever tried on a dare was jellyfish at a Chinese restaurant. It was very similar to chewing on rubber bands, with less flavor.
David Shallcross: I don’t think the CART at the Business Meeting was entirely computer generated — I saw a woman with a stenotype keyboard there. I think she was typing in a phonetic record, and then a computer system was converting to normal text. The result looks a lot like a pure computerized speech-to-text, except that the computer doesn’t have to be able to recognize phonemes.
The CART output at the Sasquan Business Meeting was person-generated, not computer-generated. She had a stenotype keyboard (what court reporters use). These keyboards work by pressing 2 or more keys simultaneously (chords).
She was very fast, but occasionally the system would translate a chord to a word similar in sound to the desired word, but completely wrong. One of those was “corkage” (but I don’t remember what the real word was supposed to be). I wish I’d been able to write these malapropisms down; they were often quite amusing.
@RedWombat:
And I’m the person at MFF in 2009 who showed you pictures from the Montreal Worldcon earlier that year where I’d been helping run the furry fandom display, where Digger had a place of honour on the display table. (And was the direct cause of at least one conversation, as one of the young girls walking by went ‘Oooh, Digger!’ and wandered over with her mother and sister in tow.)
I’m one of those somewhat pan-fannish people, having been to comics cons (starting with the Victoria International Cartoon Festival back in about 1985), literary SF cons (including a couple of Worldcons), gaming cons, furry cons, anime cons… cross-fertilization of ideas is where it’s at!
Which reminds me, the open air book festival ‘Word on the Street’ is next weekend…
Ahh; I heard them talking about CART while I was watching the Business Meeting vids, and so I looked it up and found the computer version. Didn’t know there was a stenographer there. Thanks.
And as to whether anyone in particular is a fan, writing these comments is the oldest form of “fanac” (fannish activity) there is; older than conventions, even. Fandom started with people writing letters of comment to magazines and fanzines, and File770 is indisputably a fanzine. So if you’re a commenter here, and you want to call yourself a member of fandom, congratulations! You are! (And if you don’t, that’s fine too.)
*flail* Hello, all of you! Goodness!
RedWombat, for some reason I thought instantly of you the other day; I was moving the lawn here in northern Illinois when a rather large toad (I’m pretty sure it was a toad; not a frog; no major water sources nearby) hopped away from the intended path of the lawnmower and gave me what I can only describe as a dirty look. By large, I mean it was at least 3″ from head to butt; it was brown and kinda stripey-splotchy. And I thought “it’s not a lawn crayfish, but I know someone who’d love this…”
RedWombat: One Of Us! One Of Us! (In a totally-consensual if-you-want-to-be sort of way, that is.)
I wish we had weird local food to send you, but nothing I can think of travels well. It’s been fascinating to introduce people from other bits of the country to italian beef sandwiches, though; doesn’t EVERYONE have little gyros-and-italian-beef joints on the corner? Mmmmm, soggy sammiches; what’s not to love?
For those of you not from the area, italian beef sandwiches are kind of like french dip sandwiches, but usually without the dipping, and with added peppers: roast beef sandwiches with sweet sauteed peppers or hot pickled (giardinera) peppers in a long hard roll with a seasoned beef juices sauce either on the side or (by default) pre-sogged for your convenience (“dipped”, “double-dipped”, or “wet”). Mozzerella can be added, as can an Italian sausage (a “combo” sandwich).
Truly a glorious thing. But watch out for the Italian sausage, which comes in “mild” or “hot”–the “hot” can be really quite spicy indeed for whitebread Midwestern palates.
…And now I’m hungry. Good thing there’s a nice little Italian Beef joint nearby….
JJ: Dear sweet gods above and below the earth, What Was That!?!
Seriously, that video. I can’t even, I can’t even odd.
@Cally
What area is this? NYC? I can’t stand the thought of missing that sandwich if I’m ever there.
Kathodus, Cally and I are are in the Chicago area. The places to get proper Italian Beef sandwiches are Portillos, or Bueno Beef. I know there are a few Portillos springing up in unlikely places like California; I think Bueno Beef is still entirely regional.
And it’s beef, and it’s roasted, but it’s not exactly what I’d consider “roast beef sandwiches” — the beef is a different cut than the traditional roast. I’ve heard (not verified) that the sandwich originated in the old Stockyards, where impoverished workers would take bad cuts of meat, slice it thin, cook it, and make a sandwich of it.
Delicious. More like the beef in a Philly Cheese Steak than from an Arbys, if that helps.
Well, the BEST places to get italian beef sandwiches in the Chicago area are particular little ma-and-pa corner places, but yes, for predictably-good chain store sandwiches, Portillos is best, and Bueno Beef is second-best.
The beef isn’t sliced for each customer, like at an Arbies; it’s been sitting, sliced, all day in a hot bath of spiced juices, and is dredged out with tongs to put on your sandwich. So basically it’s been roasted and then kind of marinaded. And then they take that marinade and put it on the sandwich too, which is why they use a hard, dense, Italian roll. It’s the only thing that’ll stand up to the jus. Unless you like it like I do, really wet, in which case even the hardest of rolls will fall apart around the edges….
Having been on and off partially deaf in different ears at different times in my life it’s no fun. Right now it’s my left ear again as the titanium ear bone was knocked a bit in that “hit by truck in 2012” and has since moved more and “finally” broken through the ~5 year-old new ear drum. I can say new hearing aids(HAs) are things of wonder and don’t come in just pink. But in the U.S. You have to have money to get the cool ones as most insurance doesn’t cover HAs. Mine have a number of settings: normal, crowded places, listen to music/tv, Bluetooth pairing for smartphones/streaming music/tv/etc, outdoor/car and I can adjust the volume up and down on each setting. I think since I got them an app has been developed so I can control them with my iPhone instead of one of 2 ugly/devices. Mine are grey to mesh with my greying hair. But ouch I think they cost me $2.5k at Costco. Normally they retail at $5k when I got them 1.5 years ago. My dad went for the old fashioned kind which amplified everything and he rarely wore his. A few times my control device has run out of power and I’ve taken mine out when leaving the environment last set for. I give major kudos to those who wear “one setting” HAs and people of earlier generations where that was their only option. HAs still have a long way to go IMHO. Hearing aid companies need to work with companies like Bose and Jabra and others whom make music ear plugs.
I’m sorry if my back to the further riffs have been problematic. I’ve been getting a kick out of others.
Tasha: I’ve enjoyed everybody’s, including yours.
@Cassy B
Okay. That’s heartening. I have family near Chicago, so I make it out that way every year or three.
I see I’ll have an approximately 7 hour drive if I want to hit up a Portillos in California. Probably best to wait for a trip back East.
@Tasha
I like everyone’s time travel contributions. 🙂
For weird-to-me food that I love while traveling … my husband is from Connecticut. (Why, yes, he’s a Connecticut Yankee; why do you ask?) And Midwestern me had never encountered full-belly clams until we visited his family.
Yum.
Weird food? I’ve eaten scorpion, larvae, bugs, grasshoppers, snails, frogs, lambbrain, snake and whatever. I have not eaten bat. It irritates me enormous that I haven’t eaten bat. Some year I will have to go to Indonesia again just to find a place where I can eat bats.
Also, I try to make weird food for Halloween. I’ve served diapers filled with chocolate pudding. I’ve made kitty litter cake. Served whole octopusses. Jelly fish sallad.
Everything weird. Thats me.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything really weird. Lavender macaroons with smoked salmon and salmon patê, perhaps?
Weird food I’ve eaten: ants, cow udder, kangaroo, swallows, snake, I had the chance to eat locust but the “expert” said they weren’t cook right so I passed, and I know I’m forgetting a number. An ex-boyfriend and I used to go to Nashoba Vally Winery in Bolton, MA (great fruit wines & cider) for various wine launches. That year the dinners were exotic foods. I got really drunk as I’d taste the food, pass the rest to him, and drink the wine each course was served with. It was a lot of fun. We always went home with way too much cases of wine after the dinners. LOL. Everyone was surprised as I’m a very finicky eater – the list of foods I’ll eat fits on one page in 18pt & after most entries has a disclaimer (if prepared exactly as I like it & im in the right mood).
Oh, and forgot. Went to a yulebord with only weird food combinations. Most memorable: Chicken liver milkshake and Polka-Moose.
Oh yeah I’ve had stir fried bear. Don’t ask.
Well that’s a nice twist on the Bear and the Maiden Fair.
Enh. I’m of the view that if rabbit isn’t weird, kangaroo (or emu) isn’t weird.
Went backpacking through much of Southeast Asia, so weird food to me is a lengthy list… snake, monitor lizard, crocodile, deer, something amusingly called “torpedo soup” (guess what the torpedo was!), various candied or spiced insects in Thailand, squirrel/ flying fox (the term was being used interchangeably), shark, deer, turtle, frog, and probably some stuff that I’ve suppressed the memory of.
Worst is still balut in the Phillipines. Most pointless was kopi luwak in Indonesia, as it tasted just like coffee to me.
An excellent unusual combination is kangaroo curry…being a fairly gamey red meat, it lends itself quite well to the typical curry overcooking of meat.
Shark freaked me out when I tried it. Very strong marine taste* with the texture of beefsteak. Chewy beefsteak. “Who has been raising cattle on kelp?!?!?!” my mouth demanded.
* I used to say “fishy taste.” Then I tried Asian seaweed snacks and realized that what we think of as “fishy” is really something common to sea life generally.
Jim Henley, I found out when I brought shark steaks home that my cats consider shark to be their Natural Prey. They were trying to snatch it from the counter… and they always ignored human food before.