h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

By 'that', I mean spread butter on the skin of the chicken I just put into the oven to roast, and then lick the butter off my fingers.

But a little salmonella never hurt anyone, right? And it is a free-range chicken. So I'm probably fine. And the cold germs will probably see off the salmonella.

You'll be fine.

Unless you're not...

So far so goo...

Just kidding

Yesterday evening, I was told my dog got sick earlier...

After eating a piece of steak that may have gone bad...


"What steak?"

"Some of that skirt steak."

"This skirt steak? That I'm eating right now?"

"Yeah... a couple of the steaks were from an old batch in the freezer. You might want to taste it before you eat it."

"..." *



It didn't taste bad... Until I got 3/4ths through it. I think it was just freezer burn, but the rest went in the trash (much to Nessie's dismay). I didn't get sick so that wasn't it. Dogs just vomit every once in a while. No reason needed.








*(contextually, that's the most appropriate smiley. )

Cats are pretty good at puking too. Aren't you, Dewey

Pippin The Wonder Cat is an expert at catching big mice/small rats, partially chewing them then swallowing them nearly whole.

Then puking the lot up right at the bottom of the stairs, ready for me when I come down at 5am...

pah... you shouldn't get no infection or naught from that... barely anything, even if there was anything... heck, I did worse than that when I had no immune system and didn't hurl Mind... I did end up with blood poisening four ... or three... can't recall times so maybe that was food related but... no damn doctor was gona make me burn meat to satisfy their hygine obsession

No alarm clock will ever get you out of bed as fast as the sound of a pet vomiting.

h2g2 topic drift The place just wouldn't be the same without it

Mind you, on a more serious note, I did have a friend back home who suspected he was HIV positive but kept putting off going to the doctor until he was laid almost as low as you can go (death) by a dose of what was probably salmonella from his two pet terrapins, and ended up in hospital for some time. He subsequently got on a course of drugs and started looking after himself better, to such an extent that he was as fit as me when I was spending my working days lifting boxes and lumps of furniture and carrying them up and down stairs.

His terrapins' names? Sam and Ella. I kid you not.

The irony there is simply stunning.

Irony or self-fulfilling prophecy?

isn't that what philosophers call nominative determinism?

You're the philosophy student, you tell us

I've finished with philosophy - thank goodness, says everyone - but yes, it is nominative determinism (like: your surname is Carpenter so you work as a carpenter...)

Myeah... I knew after I posted that that "self-fulfilling prophesy" wasn't quite the right description. Basically I was thinking that he named his terrapins Sam and Ella because of the well known tendency of turtles to harbor salmonella bacteria. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm048151.htm

I'm not sure there is a specific term for this (possibly in German, like schadenfreude). Maybe a better term would have been self-fulfilling irony. It's like naming your knife "Stabby" and then accidentally slicing yourself open with it.