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

It's that eye for the telling detail that makes these Researchers so special...

http://www.undiscovered-destinations.com/holidays-guided-tours/northkorea/?gclid=CJ3Kn8bxjrYCFePHtAodl2kAFg


http://www.peregrineadventures.com/central-asia-north-asia?gclid=CNb1kNnxjrYCFRDKtAod_WUAHQ


and I can sell you a Blackpool "kiss me quick" cowboy hat cheap

Damn you for spoiling a good story, Amy!

Now this IS for real:

Danish documentary film maker Mads Brügger travelled in North Korea with two Danish-Korean humorists. They convinced the NK authorities that they were a NK friendly theatre group

Their documentary was won several international prizes - none of these came from NK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSDKqhZsVJo

An interview with Mads Brügger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWkPKlmptFo

And finally this is the documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLTMHiOIabA

To paddle back a little:

>>I am not sure that crows would be good eating---if they have been chowng down on grain it would be OK, but crows also are scavengers who eat dead things as well. That wouldn't be too tasty<<

I wonder, really. I mean, pigs are essentially scavengers - both in wild conditions (where they pretty much eat anything they can get their hooves on) and when domesticated (where, to the best of my knowledge, they are given mixed scraps, pretty much). That never stopped people eating pork.


(Of course, over here we got Judaism and Islam which forbid it, but the best theory I heard about that was that growing pigs is very wasteful in water, which is why it was unpopular in our desert areas, and eventually became a religious taboo.)

My Jewish friend describes the Jewish dilemma as being "pork on sale"

I once came up to a very non-observant friend in the university cafeteria.

He was eating a roast pork sandwich and washing it down with milk.

I was so taken aback I forgot what I had intended to tell him and blurted out, 'Does your mother know you do that?'

Nice.


To be honest, maybe it's simply because pork products are kinda rare around here (i.e. you can't find them in regular supermarkets, or in most restaurants), but I guess I never got a taste for them; I've eaten some pork occasionally, and now and then had some good dishes, too, but I tend to just not like it very much, and prefer other kinds of meat. Never could get into the internet's 'OMG BACON' thing, for example; I just can't see what's so great about it. *shrug* Too dry and salty.

Then again, we don't have much seafood here, and yet I love pretty much any and all seafood, so maybe it's just personal taste after all.

~*~

Pierce, your joke reminds me of the photos that circulated around the internet some time ago, from some inattentive supermarket Stateside that put 'Special for Hanukkah' signs on discount ham.

I'm sure I've related this tale already, but it bears repeating.

I called on a Muslim Cash & Carry owner in Glasgow last Christmas to deliver his "gift" (many Asian customers expect to be given a gift at Christmas). To my surprise he gave me a gift too, a large ham! Seeing my confused look he told me that a sales rep from another company had given it to him earlier that day. When he'd protested that, as a Muslim, he couldn't accept it she reassured him -

"Oh it's ok, it's not bacon ... it's *ham*"

Just ham.

Of course, I was raised on bacon and ham. It's what we had to eat - pork, beef, and chicken. I remember the first time my mom tried cooking mutton - not a success, she had less idea of what that was supposed to taste like than squirrel, possum, stuff like that.

I suspect possum is not kosher, but I'm not sure.

I suspect you suspect right...
The rules are rather strict and simple, really: the only mammals that are allowed are those which regurgitate their food and have cloven hooves (both need to apply: for example, camels are out, even though they regurgitate, because they don't have hooves). And no pigs (I'm pretty sure they don't regurgitate, but even if they did, they're forbidden by name).
In case you were wondering, this means that giraffes are kosher. Seriously. It's been debated by rabbis, and decided that since they fit the criteria, they're theoretically okay to eat.

ratatouille makes you think a bitwhat with beef/horse

Join my church and eat what you like, Prof

This begs the question: Are Jews allowed to eat s?

http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/03/22/oreilly-declares-victory-in-war-on-christmas-jo/193201

Well, it doesn't *beg* the question. But it does make it possible.

It's actually a more complex question than its general air of silliness would suggest.

See, there are several aspects here that will affect the answer:

A. Which Jews?
I'm not just talking about various sub-sects within the religion; Judaism is a bit curious in that you can't actually _stop_ being Jewish. It straddles the line between a religion and an ethnicity - so you can convert and join in (unusual in ethnicities) but once you're Jewish, your level of belief and observation doesn't really matter to whether you're a Jew or not (unusual in religions[]). So you can be a secular Jew, an atheist Jew, even a converted (to another religion) Jew, but you're a Jew nonetheless. And so, the matter of 'being allowed' to eat something or other is a bit tricky. As a secular Jew, am I allowed to eat seafood? A more strictly religious person will say that I am not, and that I am flouting the law. Personally, I think that I am, because as far as I'm concerned the only one that can allow me such things is me. And I allow it.

But all of the above is kinda smart-alecky, so here is the really relevant factor:

B. What kind of chocolate, and when are you eating it?
As far as I know, most chocolate bunnies are made of milk chocolate. For some of the more religious people, the milk might be an issue, if it is gentile. This is not referring to the religion of the cows but of those who handle the milk - any milk that is not from a certified Jewish source is forbidden. This is why on some imported goods you might find a note along the lines of 'kosher for those who eat foreign milk' (because it's a level of observance, not a strict yes-or-no issue). This might also be an issue with dark chocolate, if it's the sort that contains butter.
But even if the milk is certified, you might still not be allowed to eat your , if you've eaten some meat beforehand. Depending on ethnicity (Ashkenazi / Sephardi) and sect, you need to wait anywhere between... I think it's 3-6 hours, or something like that, after eating meat, before you can have any dairy. The original reasoning is that you might still have some meat stuck in your teeth, but it's not like you can bypass it by flossing; tradition is tradition.

So in conclusion, your bunny better be parve.





[] I still remember, the first summer I went to the US to work in summer camp - which was a Jewish camp, but had counsellors from many places - feeling slightly baffled when I talked to people who said stuff like 'I used to be a Christian, but now I'm not'. It sounded so absolutely strange to me... it was just hard to grasp that for them, it signifies solely a religious status, and thus was something you could stop being.

That was beautifully explained, Lady P.

Yes, Christian is something you can give up for Lent. I have relatives who have changed religions often. They stay Scots Irish, though - freckles can't be baptised away.

Our Hebrew prof said four hours between milchig and fleischig, I think? It was a sore point when he lived in the UK - because no matter how often you tell tea ladies otherwise, they will bring you milk tea. I had the same problem, but then I'm just lactose intolerant.

I believe jello is not kosher, either.

Again, the time you need to wait between meat and dairy differs between different sects. Usually Ashkenazies are stricter than the Sepahrdies, and demand a longer wait...

As for gelatine, I think it depends which animal it's made from. Don't remember what the issue is, exactly.