Like friends who meet on a regular basis to chat and catch up on things over some coffee, here we are once again with another collection of Short Shots. Please enjoy these little blog notes!
If this is the first time you're reading the blog and would like to catch up on the earlier Short Shots, you can read them here, here, and here.
I have to admit that I love lasagna. Especially being of Italian (Sicilian, specifically) descent, lasagna was a dish that I quite literally grew up on. I love the layers and layers of pasta interspersed with other layers of oozing cheese and meat and sauce. Mmm...il cibo delicioso!
However, after researching the Plague for the historical context essay I recently posted, I will never look at lasagna quite the same way again.
Never. Ever. Ever-ever-ever.
In that essay you can find the following quote from a Florentine chronicler, referring to the disposal of the many Plague victims:
"(People) did little else except to carry dead bodies to be buried...At every church they dug deep pits down to the water-table; and thus those who were poor who died during the night were bundled up quickly and thrown into the pit. In the morning when a large number of bodies were found in the pit, they took some earth and shoveled it down on top of them; and later others were placed on top of them and then another layer of earth, just as one makes lasagna with layers of pasta and cheese."
Oh, damn...
So first of all, I find it really interesting that lasagna has clearly been around since at least the mid-1300s. That makes me wonder when it was first developed as a distinct dish, and by whom.
But, more importantly, is the fact that this chronicler decided to compare the layers and layers of rotting human flesh to that of the delicious layers that make up lasagna. Why, oh why, would anybody make that comparison?! What a wonderful way to ruin an almost perfect dish!
I mean, it's not like I'm going to stop eating lasagna. That'd be an insult to my Italian forebearers and to my gustatory delights, but damn! If you're going to be a chronicler have at least a little thought for future generations, will you?!
If this is the first time you're reading the blog and would like to catch up on the earlier Short Shots, you can read them here, here, and here.
Tasty Layers of Oozing Goodness!
I have to admit that I love lasagna. Especially being of Italian (Sicilian, specifically) descent, lasagna was a dish that I quite literally grew up on. I love the layers and layers of pasta interspersed with other layers of oozing cheese and meat and sauce. Mmm...il cibo delicioso!
However, after researching the Plague for the historical context essay I recently posted, I will never look at lasagna quite the same way again.
Never. Ever. Ever-ever-ever.
In that essay you can find the following quote from a Florentine chronicler, referring to the disposal of the many Plague victims:
"(People) did little else except to carry dead bodies to be buried...At every church they dug deep pits down to the water-table; and thus those who were poor who died during the night were bundled up quickly and thrown into the pit. In the morning when a large number of bodies were found in the pit, they took some earth and shoveled it down on top of them; and later others were placed on top of them and then another layer of earth, just as one makes lasagna with layers of pasta and cheese."
Oh, damn...
So first of all, I find it really interesting that lasagna has clearly been around since at least the mid-1300s. That makes me wonder when it was first developed as a distinct dish, and by whom.
But, more importantly, is the fact that this chronicler decided to compare the layers and layers of rotting human flesh to that of the delicious layers that make up lasagna. Why, oh why, would anybody make that comparison?! What a wonderful way to ruin an almost perfect dish!
I mean, it's not like I'm going to stop eating lasagna. That'd be an insult to my Italian forebearers and to my gustatory delights, but damn! If you're going to be a chronicler have at least a little thought for future generations, will you?!
Oh, She's a Keeper
In the recent interview I did with Brittany Reeves, she says this in reference to the relationship with her husband, Kyle Griswold: "I love him with my whole heart, even more than I love swords."
Men of HEMA, listen up: If you find a woman who loves swords and also loves you, then she is to be held on to and treated like the precious treasure she is. If she says she loves you even more than swords, then she is to be held on to with both of your hands and treated like a treasure of incomparable worth and value!
Back to the subject of Black Death for a moment. This is an entirely modern way to refer to the Plague, one that, according to this article, is first attributed to the illness in 1823.
Although there was a poem written in 1350 by Belgian astronomer Simon de Couvin in which he refers to "black death" -- or, in the original Latin, mors nigra -- he was not referring to the disease itself. Rather, it was merely a poetic (imagine that) way to refer to the massive number of deaths.
This was referred to in a 1908 book on the Plague with the assertion that the people of the time called it The Black Death, and as so often happens when incorrect facts are put out there as absolutes, it became part of the overarching common knowledge -- knowledge, that is, without being able to identify a source.
So over time, this became one of those things people just "knew" though they couldn't tell you how they knew. Well, they knew because they were wrong.
But now you know the truth. Pretty cool, eh?
It's always a delight when some of the best HEMA folks do a great job at something, and that has happened quite a bit here recently.
Two of our absolute favorites, Rebecca Glass and Patrick McCaffery, just pulled off the excellent and epically-named Mid Atlantic Rookie Tournament: Fighty McFightface on September 15 and 16. As the name implies -- well, the not the "Fighty McFightface" part of the name -- this was a tournament designed specifically for rookies or for folks who had just never been able to get out of their pools at previous contests. Personally, I think there need to be more tournaments like this so folks to ease their way into open Longsword tournaments without the abject fear and overwhelming you often have at your first tournament. (If you're interested, you can about my own struggles at the first tournament I went to here.)
But aside from Rebecca's and Patrick's accomplishment, I am so pleased that our own Clint Shaaf successfully coached the winning fighter, Jonathan Paulino. He also coached two other top-placing fencers, John Armitage and Bill Gollatz. Great job, everyone!
Alrighty, folks. We were all over the place in this most recent Short Shot, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.
Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
Men of HEMA, listen up: If you find a woman who loves swords and also loves you, then she is to be held on to and treated like the precious treasure she is. If she says she loves you even more than swords, then she is to be held on to with both of your hands and treated like a treasure of incomparable worth and value!
The Black Death That Never Was
Back to the subject of Black Death for a moment. This is an entirely modern way to refer to the Plague, one that, according to this article, is first attributed to the illness in 1823.
Although there was a poem written in 1350 by Belgian astronomer Simon de Couvin in which he refers to "black death" -- or, in the original Latin, mors nigra -- he was not referring to the disease itself. Rather, it was merely a poetic (imagine that) way to refer to the massive number of deaths.
This was referred to in a 1908 book on the Plague with the assertion that the people of the time called it The Black Death, and as so often happens when incorrect facts are put out there as absolutes, it became part of the overarching common knowledge -- knowledge, that is, without being able to identify a source.
So over time, this became one of those things people just "knew" though they couldn't tell you how they knew. Well, they knew because they were wrong.
But now you know the truth. Pretty cool, eh?
Congratulations!
It's always a delight when some of the best HEMA folks do a great job at something, and that has happened quite a bit here recently.
Two of our absolute favorites, Rebecca Glass and Patrick McCaffery, just pulled off the excellent and epically-named Mid Atlantic Rookie Tournament: Fighty McFightface on September 15 and 16. As the name implies -- well, the not the "Fighty McFightface" part of the name -- this was a tournament designed specifically for rookies or for folks who had just never been able to get out of their pools at previous contests. Personally, I think there need to be more tournaments like this so folks to ease their way into open Longsword tournaments without the abject fear and overwhelming you often have at your first tournament. (If you're interested, you can about my own struggles at the first tournament I went to here.)
But aside from Rebecca's and Patrick's accomplishment, I am so pleased that our own Clint Shaaf successfully coached the winning fighter, Jonathan Paulino. He also coached two other top-placing fencers, John Armitage and Bill Gollatz. Great job, everyone!
⚔
Alrighty, folks. We were all over the place in this most recent Short Shot, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.
Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
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