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Weekend


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February 21, 2003

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. From a Bakersfield, Calif., reader: "I have often wondered how far back in time one could travel and eat the food and not get sick. For example, a church picnic in 1870, a buffalo kill on the plains, a medieval feast featuring (yum yum) pigeon pie and fish head soup!?"

    A. "What would make you sick, you tender modern morsel, you?" teases Lynn F. Hoffman, Ph.D., anthropologist and scholar in residence in food and culture at Drexel University, Philadelphia. Seriously, the only thing you would have to fear would be microorganisms to which you were unaccustomed. That's the same thing to worry about when you go to the next country or town. Except in times and places where everyone suffered chronically from intestinal parasites, you would quickly adapt.


     
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