Does this cuisine employ nutmeg and mace in very large quantities? Or … is it drugs? Why so cagey?
1: I'm not sure. I was cagey to see if anyone would guess.
Is it highly spiced? Can it only be consumed at high altitudes? I always have especially vivid dreams when hiking at high altitudes.
Because this is a stereotype I've heard before.
Is it highly spiced?
It can be, but I don't think all dishes of this type necessarily are.
Can it only be consumed at high altitudes?
Huh? What foods have that condition?
4: Nope! But interesting that that you've heard the same thing and suspected BS.
7: Sodas that go flat very quickly can only be consumed at high altitudes or in special low pressure chambers.
Nope. Drawing a complete blank. Nightmare-inducing cuisine? It would presumably have vegetarian incarnations. And not be something that people tend to eat on a regular basis. Ethiopian? I don't like the pancake-like thing myself, though I don't recall its causing nightmares.
Huh? What foods have that condition?
Some epicure you are.
10: The only thing I could think of was coca leaves, but it's not that they can be consumed only at high altitudes, I don't think. It just happens to be where they're often consumed, or so I thought.
My second guess is Mexican, but that's because Mexican food on the east coast is a nightmare.
It just happens to be where they're often consumed, or so I thought.
Well, yeah, that's where they grow.
I'd think maybe a combination of rich and spicy would be most weird-dream-inducing for me, like some Indian and Thai curries or various Ethiopian things. But not injera, which is a comfort.
I think I'd have bad dreams if I ate scrambled eggs and after I was done somebody said I had, instead of my own implement, used the fork Jon Voight just finished with.
14: Nope! And I'm about to be away for a bit, so I guess I'm probably leaving you all hanging. How utterly rude of me.
Indian and Thai -- well, I think a lot of us have partaken of those cuisines without nightmares.
Stanley's going to have to give it up.
12: Generally, yes. The trick is to go to the next town over from the richy rich town. That's where all the employees live. Usually good ethnic food, frequently Mexican. (This is outside of the awesome NYC area, obviously.)
Seriously, I'm not being offensive. This strategy works.
Can it only be consumed at high altitudes?
Quickly boiled slowly cooked hard boiled eggs from physics and chemistry texts.
Stanley is obviously referring to raw food cuisine. There you go.
Geoduck. A whole deep-fried geoduck. Terrifying.
We should be able to figure this one out:
At 10:31 PM EDT he commented on having ham with his folks for Easter. Presumably he was then back home having (probably) already partaken of the cuisine in question after (or during) the drive back from his parents. So where would you grab a quick late (and probably small) dinner in or on the way to C'ville on an Easter Sunday evening?
Local knowledge needed, or Sifu Tweety someone to hack his iPhone tracking data.
What the hell is a geoduck?
I'm off, but I hope Stanley is going to be revealing the secret of the nightmare-inducing food later on.
Stanley should clearly stop eating nightshade. Stanley, when driving home from an Easter meal and an ominous stranger offers you some nightshade on the roadside, say no. Just Say No. Not Even Once. Tell them, "ham is my anti-drug."
I've never had nightmares that I could specifically tie to food myself. But it could be I'm not working with the correct cuisine theory. I have a relative who's constructed her entire diet around a theory of "hot nuts" and "cold nuts," as I think I may've mentioned before. Sort of a curious echo of the medieval humors. Who knows, maybe she's onto something. Maybe I eat too many "cold nuts*." I'll be the next Atkins. Hopefully longer-lived.
* Or maybe I savor too much low-hanging fruit, IYKWIM&ITD.
"I'll be the next Atkins" s/b "Maybe she'll be the next Atkins"
So, uh, am I just warped, or would this shirt be a bad choice for a middle-school girl to wear to gym class?
30: Better consult with Harold and Kumar first.
31: In Chicago, I think you'll be fine.
31: You're not warped.
Or at least no moreso than I am. Which admittedly is not definitive as regards "not being warped" in the bigger social picture. But in that case you could operate on the assumption that the same proportion of dudes who would find Beavis and Butthead moderatedly funny are warped enough to interpret that slogan salaciously.
Doesn't Stanley have allergies? I bet he just took a Zyrtec after consuming his mandu or whatever.
Lamprey? Albatross and realizing it tastes nothing like the albatross you ate on the lifeboat where you were trapped for months while friends mysteriously went to a better place every now and then?
32: Yeah, he'd need to have gone via New Jersey, Ohio or Kentucky.
The canonical answer is of course Welsh rarebit, but I don't think that counts as a "type" of cuisine.
The black meat of the giant aquatic Brazilian centipede?
The answer is boringly going to be Chinese--my actual guess from considerations in 23. (And 2nd guess, Italian!).
42: Yep. Chinese. (Specifically, from one of the restaurants of that wandering dude from the New Yorker article, so maybe slightly less boring.)
And, while I was amused by Stormcrow's digging for clues from the archives, I ate the Chinese at 6pm, having had Easter "dinner" around 11:30am. So not late-night.
(Specifically, from one of the restaurants of that wandering dude from the New Yorker article, so maybe slightly less boring.)
And was it awesome?
46: Best Chinese food I've ever had, but I'm no epicure.
47: Okay. So don't eat really good Chinese food, since it plainly contains nightshade. Just Say No, Not Even Once, etc... I'm sticking to my guns on this.
44: Yes, did not anticipate an 11:30 AM dinner time. Also, Then last night, after eating this particular type of cuisine several hours before. But then I should have known to factor in the possibility of unreliable narration.
Drunk clam? Those really old eggs? Live monkey brain?
49: Where was my narration unreliable?
52: My hobo consultants inform me that "several" when applied to hours is 3 or 4. But I grasp at straws.
52,53: And don't know when to leave well enough alone. (Actually my wife and boss tell me that one, no need for paid hobos.)
I don't think I have ever been able to ascribe weird dreams to food. I am going to take some valerian, melatonin & B6 tonight, along with my Wellbutrin, and see what happens. Minus the Wellbutrin, that cocktail tends to produce not necessarily weirder dreams, but dreams which have a certain quality of aliveness that usually seems to be lacking. My dreams recently have been falling into cliched narrative structure more often than I would like, so we'll see if this can shake them up a bit.
Did this Chinese restaurant perhaps specialize in the rare but exquisite delights of Mefloquinese cuisine? Cause that would explain it.
55: Be careful with taking too many things that increase serotonin levels in different ways. (Serotonin syndrome, yay!) If you're not going to be careful, I've found 5-HTP to be the most fun, dream-wise. (I mean. Of things you can buy at the drugstore.)
58: Wellbutrin mostly works on norepinephrine though, so I think I should be okay. It's not like I'm taking heroic doses of any of them.
31: That was my first reading, and, judging by my maturity level, my guess is it would be every middle schooler's first reading, too.
Somewhat related: when I was young my mom let me wear a shirt to school that said "I can't even think straight" for, like, a long time, before I figured it out. I was an earnest, intensely gullible child. Conservatives: this is probably where I got gay cooties.
You might even think that the slogan was chosen in part because of its potential salacity.
It certainly lends itself to some hot cross puns.
57: No, but Arby's makes Chinese people sleepwalk.
Ha, ambien. Sleep eating! Sleep operating of heavy machinery! Sleep crime!
I love that they still sometimes run commercials for Ambien, but at really long intervals. It's so hopeful. Like, maybe everyone's gotten over the horrific possibility of actual zombie-ism as a side effect? No? We'll wait another 6 months till we ask again, then.
The recitation of possible side effects is so surreal that every time - every time - I add a little "do not taunt your sleep aid" and think of SNL. I also do this with the antidepressant commercials with that adorably sad circular blob thingy.
When I had some post-car-accident trouble sleeping, I found Lunesta worked quite well, but I can see how that would get addicting right quick if you weren't willing to go and get active once again. I'm thankful my PCP wasn't willing to give me more than a week's supply at a time with a plan for what I was up to.
Extraordinarily vivid post=apocalyptic dream with many HS elements. Huge cast of characters. Much of it has already escaed me though. Will try to do better with the next one.
i never thought of scotch as a cuisine before
The is no way that any amount of valerian, melotonan, b6, and bup[rpoin woudl ever cause 5ht syndrome.
cyproheptadine is a great sleep drug and also the best 5ht syndrome antidote.
Recursive. Egyptology. Racing around and around a giant Mississsippi riverboat on the nile.
my guess is it would be every middle schooler's first reading, too
Except, as far as I can tell, Rory's... Her future stepmom gave it to her. Which leaves me in a bind: let her wear it, despite the risk of salacious middle school teasing? explain why she might not want to wear it? Or, what if I'm the naive one, and she does get it and want to wear it for its salaciousness?
Talk to her, make sure she understands the double meaning and potential reactions and then let her make her own decision.
Just like an episode of Punky Brewster.
64: Speaking of surreal lists of side effects, I'm quite fond of the supposed anti-smoking drug that casually lists "some people may experience suicidal or actions" among its "side-effects." Or all the anti-depressants that have this same "side-effect."
75: OK, so they attempt suicide but not in a depressed way. In a happy, extrovert, go-getting sort of way. You know, like kamikaze pilots.
OK, so they attempt suicide but not in a depressed way. In a happy, extrovert, go-getting sort of way. You know, like kamikaze pilots.
They stuff their pockets with candy and gum before throwing themselves from that tall building.
OK, so they attempt suicide but not in a depressed way. In a happy, extrovert, go-getting sort of way. You know, like kamikaze pilots.
Mono no aware. You know nothing about Japan, and are instructed to watch at least five Tora-San movies or three seasons of Japanese game shows.
76, 78: You know nothing about Japan
See ajay, you say something about Japan and Marshall McLuhan some guy shows up.
78: true, I know nothing about Japan; but I think that getting into a plywood aeroplane and confidently reckoning you are going to be able to single-handedly take down an aircraft carrier (as a lot of them seemed to think) is a fairly go-getting thing to do. A depressive would make a terrible kamikaze. He'd just sit there on the runway thinking "what's the point? I'd probably miss, or get lost on the way or something, because I'm such a rubbish pilot".
All I know about Japanese game shows is from watching Clive James mocking them, but a happy, extrovert, go-getting approach to inflicting physical damage on yourself seems to be a common factor.
Vivid dreams from Chinese food --> Allergy to MSG.
All I know about Japanese game shows
There are always the archives.
I just swallowed a whole jelly bean. I should probably slow down.
31: Schools have enough trouble promoting healthy eating without subversive shirts like that one.
Further, I did not know until reading her Wikipedia entry just a few months ago, that Poly Styrene was half Somali. Just one more reason to like immigrants, you never know who their kids will turn out to be.
If you put too much pressure on Somali kids to be cool, they'll all go to dental school.
I'm not exactly sure what I have to say about this, but the language we use to talk our way around the idea of killing yourself is a topic of some medium-sized amount of interest. I guess it's just a subset of the language we use to talk around other things, specifically involving the crazy.
Alright then. I started to write about it and it was turning into a novel, a whole flock of teal deer, so maybe not.
On a perhaps more productive meta topic, did anyone ever not comment here for a week or two, come back, and realize you've lost the knack for the tone of the place?
I'm curious to read your novel, Smearcase. Or at least the back cover.
The back cover says "An engaging tale of suspense, masterfully told. We have no finer writers today." --Smearcase's Mom.
I just started talking about a recent awful conversation with a friend who was sorta...floating the idea of killing himself. It occurred to me I might not be talking about it so much because it was on-topic but because it was still bugging me?
I guess more to the point, and in brief (and I've written about this elsewhere, probably better) there is something truly consoling to people in real distress about thinking and talking about suicide, but for fairly obvious reasons therapists &c. can't encourage any discussion of it at all, and I think this may have contributed to all this distancing verbiage like "suicidal ideation."
Theraputic directives aside, the topic does encourage distancing. Hope your friend is getting better.
Wait, what? When i worked on a hotline, we specifically didn't avoid talking abt it. We were trained to call that shit out and do some risk assessment.
It's not exactly that you can't discuss it but, In My Long-Ago Experience, there is a very low threshhold for moving from "let's discuss why this idea makes you feel better" to "I am reaching for the bat phone because if I don't have you hospitalized, I am culpable if we are not just 'ventilating affect'."
Thanks, Moby. He sounds better. He's overseas, which makes the whole thing more hair-raising. This whole thing took place over IM. O tempora o mores!
I started to write about it and it was turning into a novel, a whole flock of teal deer, so maybe not.
OK, never mind the rest of it, explain the deer thing, it's bothering me. (Is this just some regional American equivalent of "another kettle of fish"?)
When i worked on a hotline, we specifically didn't avoid talking abt it.
But, the Butterball help-line is a whole different pit of angst.
96: Any explanation would be too long to read.
If I'VE MISSED OUT ON A WHOLE TROPE OF GENTLY COLORED WOODLAND CREATURE IDIOMS, I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT.
96: silly little internet affectation I like. tl;dr = too long; didn't read. I think often posted as a comment on an LJ posting maybe. Mutated at some point into teal deer.
Wait, really? This is a thing? You're not just messing with ajay?
Also, is there a butterball days story, like dave sedaris' christmas elf thing? Bc i feel like there probably should be, only it would be more abt the things people try to stuff into other things.
explain the deer thing, it's bothering me.
A ruminant duck with antlers?
Bambi on bad acid?
Suicide Rates by Nation and Gender
Japan, due to the regrettable decline in cultural values, has fallen to a tie for third with Finland, behind South Korea and Hungary. However, on a quick perusal, Japan does seem to be very near the top in gender equality for successful suicides, with only Sweden and Switzerland out ranking them by relative percentage, and only Korea excelling in absolute terms.
Don't be so nationalistic, Bob. You could try to feel happy for the Koreans.
http://bit.ly/g8KnN4
The wise say, "Joyance is in three things, eating meat and riding meat and putting meat into meat."
At least two of those three things promote physical fitness.
Burton's translation of Af Laylah Wa Laylah is a gold mine.
106: After all, someone has to, and it's not going to be them.
94: I do know what you mean about the suicide thing. I've talked to people who've said that they've had thoughts about suicide, or at any rate about death, when feeling unhappy but quite far from at any risk of hurting themselves, and they knew that they couldn't possibly mention those thoughts to anyone for fear of triggering all kinds of overreaction.
Not that I have any reason to think the overreaction is a bad idea, but it's a thing.
Mutated at some point into teal deer.
My god! I didn't know that. You mean I'm not spending enough time on the internet?
"Teal deer" is new to me, too (but I knew "tl;dr"). Go, Smearcase. Teach us more about this internet.
Japan, due to the regrettable decline in cultural values, has fallen to a tie for third with Finland, behind South Korea and Hungary.
Charging gleefully into national stereotypes: Finland and Hungary, obviously, because the cliche'd suicide note says "no one understands me!" and if you're speaking Finnish or Hungarian, then that's actually true.
South Koreans are actually no more likely to attempt to commit suicide than people from any other country, but when they do attempt suicide they do it with such single-mindedness and energy that they are 100% successful.
Yeah, this is definitely a taboo topic. I'm prone to depression and think about suicide frequently, have for decades. Thinking about it at all is I think pretty common for people prone to depression, not a good sign, but not rare.
Thinking about method and place in detail is much more serious, especially if coupled with signs of severe depression (sleep disturbance, loss of basic function like getting up and getting dressed, dealing with daily life). Basically, offing yourself should stay very far down on the list of options, it's a warning if it starts to seem like a good idea rather than an idea.
But thinking about it is pretty common, I think, and definitely there's a tendency among non-depressives to freak out when they hear the word. A fairly basic step is for depressed people to avoid owning guns.
89: did anyone ever not comment here for a week or two, come back, and realize you've lost the knack for the tone of the place?
Yep.
113: I used to think about suicide frequently as well, partly as a way of dealing with stress. Not a good way, mind you.
NMM to Poly Styrene.
Or Phoebe Snow, for that matter.
Der Gedanke an den Selbstmord ist ein starkes Trostmittel: mit ihm kommt man gut über manche böse Nacht hinweg.
Is German the second-most-common language in TFA? It must be, I think.
Creo que el español es el próximo.
Latin is probably in the running.
I'm alarmed that google translates "fucker" as "hijo de puta." (I was trying to get it to give me some form of "chingar.")
I would have thought that Greek would edge out Latin, but both would have heavy competition from French.
English is the second most common language in the archives, bitches.
122: Hijo de puta would easily be in my top four choices for translating "fucker", along with huevón, chingón, and jodón.
126: Really. Apparently, I'm overly literal on that stuff.
Smearcase, I also tend to react badly to folks joking about suicide here. I tend to chalk up the sensitivity as mine and walk away from those threads, mostly because I can't figure out how intervening would go well. But thanks for saying something.
If folks are curious, the reason why some anti-depressants can up the chance of suicide is that suicidal deeply depressed people often literally don't have the energy to kill themselves. If they start taking an anti-depressant that gives them more energy before their well-being improves or while it still feels like they will alwasy feel this much pain, it can give them the energy they needed to act.
118: Nacht? Not Naechte?
Yes; manch- is generally used with singular nouns even though it has a plural-ish sense; not so much "many bad nights" as "many a bad night".
127: It's just that hijo de puta is more common across a few different regions and can strike the same joking tone as "fucker". Chingón leans Mexican/Central American; huevón, PR/DR. At least to my ear.
130: I'm was just remarking. I've never been fluent, let alone able to get the differences between regions.
See. I even have issues with English.
Pittsburghians have a thousand words for "yinz".
Cf.: "Am Brunnen vor dem Tore / Da steht ein Lindenbaum / Ich träumt in seinem Schatten / So manchen süßen Traum / Ich schnitt in seine Rinde / so manches liebes Wort".
I got all but Trost. My German is minimal, so it's nice to occasionally have a moment of "hey, I can get through a thing Nietzsche said about suicide!"
Allow me to endorse this online dictionary.
Allow me also to point out that the hyphens in 119 are not necessary.
Manch bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.
(I memorized this for Language Day or whatever it was called in 11th grade! Still comes in handy! Except now I have to hum to remember much of it.)
55 et seq: yeah, I can't recall any strong food:dream relationship in my own experience, but sweet christ are the Venlafaxine withdrawal dreams awful.
And re: suicide, I basically endorse everything LW said in 113.
It's been mentioned a zillion times before in TFA, but if anyone hasn't yet read that New Yorker piece on people who jump of the Golden Gate Bridge, it's fantastically poignant.
(Speaking of non-sequiturs: we should have a NYC meetup sometime between May 5-8, since that's when I'll be there. And an SF meetup any time after that.)
Allow me also to point out that the hyphens in 119 are not necessary.
Consider them a rare and joyful instance of sinful excess.
I once classified the thoughts by degrees of seriousness, ranging from 'thinking about thinking about' to 'desire to do it now'. The former is background noise if you have any serious history of depression, no reason for anybody to worry; the latter is very good reason for friends to freak out, and if it's acting as a 'Trostmittel' for you, rather than 'oh fuck, I need help' you're in serious trouble. The way it can function as a satisfying calming fantasy, a 'Selbstbefriedigung' of a sorts is deeply disturbing.
