From "Baked dormouse and other Roman delicacies come to Oxford/Ashmolean Museum’s Pompeii exhibition includes food carbonised by eruption in AD79" (The Guardian).
Remember what the Dormouse said: Feed your head...
I looked up the old Jefferson Airplane lyric. Here's the annotation of that line at Genius:
[Lewis Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland,"] the Dormouse never actually says “Feed your head.” Jefferson Airplane is either putting words in his mouth or introducing this sentiment as a separate thought.But doesn't "Feed your head" mean take a lot of drugs? It's a conundrum, no?
The direct reference here is to Alice, Chapter 11, when the Mad Hatter is questioned before the court:
‘But what did the Dormouse say?’ one of the jury asked.This context gives an ominous spin to “Remember what the Dormouse said.” If you don’t “feed your head” (take drugs to tune in? expand your mind in general?), it could seriously cost you.
‘That I can’t remember’, said the Hatter.
‘You MUST remember,’ remarked the King, ‘or I’ll have you executed.’
Alternatively, this might be a commentary on the apathy and nonchalance of the drug scene. The Hatter does not remember, or care about, an important detail; drugs, too, can cause listlessness and memory loss.
Anyway, the Romans were not using the acorn-and-chestnut-stuffed dormouse to feed their head, only their belly, but the sidetrack was irresistible to me as I go about feeding your head this morning.
Posts
36 comments:
Was the Mueller testimony really this bad?
That's where Jennifer Rubin went wrong. Correct is: “Susan Collins is roasted dormouse.”
Meh, a lot of it doesn't sound that much different than today's foodies. Although, now I kind of want to host a Roman themed feast.
Fattened up with acorns and chestnuts to the size of a cricket ball
Guardian, I need culturally appropriate sportsball measurements.
The actual lyrics on the sheet music say "feed your hare"...That is NOT what Grace Slick sings.She sings "feed your head".
The Hatter wasn't a drug-addled character, he was a mercury-contaminated character.
Mercury was used in the making of hats from animal skins. Hatters oft had brain damage from mercury vapor inhalation.
And Depp's characterization of the character in the recent Alice movies was spot-on.
Guardian, I need culturally appropriate sportsball measurements.
A cricket ball is the same size as hail.
Around age 4, the head accounts for a whopping 43 percent of the body’s total energy expenditure, the team estimates, a massive allotment that might divert resources from a growing body.
That explains why 4-year-olds are so small, and also why they should have access to plenty of whopping fresh dormice.
Suntne illi glires novi?
Fish sauce is undeservedly unpopular in western cuisine.
Someday this will change.
Its an undiscovered taste, oddly enough, in this world of global influences.
Mondegreen alert: I always thought the lyric was "remember what the gorgon said" and it never made sense, but then, I guess that never bothered me.
fish sauce is instant umami. anchovy paste works well for that same effect in sauces and dressings.
buwaya said...
Fish sauce is undeservedly unpopular in western cuisine."
I love Thai food and like to cook so I go though a lot of fish sauce.
It's the name. When people ask me for recipes and I mention fish sauce, they invariably winkle up their noses and say "Can I substitute something else?" Even though they just finished eating a dish with fish sauce in it and enjoyed it enough to request the recipe.
You get an even worse reaction when you explain that it's fermented fish sauce.
Pompeii is a treasure house of Roman life preserved. I was there about ten years ago but did not go to the museum, which is in Naples.
I wish I had taken the time.
spook said...
The actual lyrics on the sheet music say "feed your hare"...
"Get me a victim right away or you'll be the victim!"
Roman Legion Hare (1955)
(I always loved the curly hair on Nero's forearms.)
The independent bookstore I used to work at used the "Feed Your Head" line in all of their ads for a few years. The owners were reformed hippies.
Nuoc mam makes everything yummy
We read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" when I was in high school for English class. One point that the professor brought up was that the Hatter, because of his profession, was suffering from mercury poisoning. Hat makers used mercurous nitrate to cure felt for making hats which made them 'mad'. One of the symptoms of mercury poisoning is memory loss, thus, the Hatter does not remember what the dormouse said because of his condition.
And don't forget garum. Lots and lots of garum.
Hungry snakes? You don’t want to let your headsnakes get grumpy.
And accompanied by gargantuan quantities of wine.
Watered down wine.
I have an annotated version of the Alice stories. It's great for explaining the political and social comments.
I recall an interview with Gracie Slick contemporary with the song, when she disclaimed the strong drug connection to "feed your head".
Slick may have been intending to protect the guilty song from "old people", but she seemed to want to introduce doubt in any case.
I always took the phrase "feed your head" to mean "gain knowledge".
You are only supposed to ask Alice when she is 10 feet tall.
Was the Mueller testimony really this bad?
He should have told the committees that a hookah-smoking caterpillar had given him the call.
Dormouse seems like it would be a lot of work if you remove the bones while eating. Or does one leave them in?
The Romans also had a condiment called garum, a sauce made from fermented fish guts. Really. I guess it wasn't really their fault that Europeans had not yet discovered tomatoes to make ketchup.
Dormouse seems like it would be a lot of work if you remove the bones while eating. Or does one leave them in?
Having enjoyed the gustatory pleasures of the bamboo squirrel, also prepared with fish sauce incidentally, it's a crunchy, bone-in experience.
This finally explains why Rome fell. They had nothing worth eating to live for.
Incidentally , “fish Sauce” is a favorite the world over. It’s made from salt and fish. Think anchovy sauce.
I always thought it was doormouse. Never too old to learn something new.
The Italians have always known how to eat well, and the importance of doing so.
Tastes in food change, though. Fortunately. I hope that rodents will never form a major part of my cuisine, with the occasional exception of rabbit, which can be quite tasty when done correctly.
I understand that "guinea pigs" (cavies) are popular in South America, as food items though, not so much as pets.
What will future generations make of turducken? Or, God help us, tofurkey?
Very un-Italian, those.
Remember, only users lose drugs!
As long as there's no MSG, I'll try almost any cuisine.
Food historians point out that the long lists of ancient and medieval delicacies we read in books are less a testimony to the tastiness of the beasts (swan?) than to the hunger most people felt most of the time. The fermented sauces and haute cuisine cookery grew from the need to disguise some pretty awful fare.
Narr
Partial to pickled herring
Is it possible the Dormouse said, "That I can't remember," and the Hatter was quoting him. I thought the Hatter was just being, you know, "Who's on first?"-ish, absurd.
Dormouse?? What the hells a dormouse? I thought this was a drug tripper song, and when your tripping weird stuff happens, like the doorknob talking to you. That's what I thought it said, '...what the doorknob said...' but maybe I'm too sober. If a dormouse starts talking to me - whatever the hell it is - I'm out of here.
Feed your head is a different perspective on a similar message as; you are what you eat. Douglas Adams' reference of putting a fish in your ear to translate the Vulcans and such. Drugs do corelate but not in a literal sense as they also effect as do olives. A much more stressful path may have someone articulate the above statement with raw angst as the band Ministry did on their A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste. They are not really promoting cabbalism:) But if you fuck with me, I will eat you ! The word for that is hangry ( hungry = angry ) and the youth should know better to simply say, no thank you I will not do drugs today. Should.
Mad Hatter is over rated Willy Wonka or Humpty Dumpty. Why is Alice looking for drugs anyway ?
Mad Hatter can be said was addicted to tea.
Willy Wonka opened a chocolate factory to prove his father dentist incorrect and created jobs as well as community.
Humpty Dumpty was an egg until I learned of metaphors and I ate Humpty Dumpty.
The Bible fearfully denotes any ingesting as ' in Vain '.
Food is good. Then it's the issue of what's in the food. War on drugs or the war on drugs. Double meaning.
Post a Comment