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Old 09-18-2017, 09:18 PM   #1731
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Real-Life Weirdness

Primitive octopus exhibiting unusual complex behavior around a long cylindrical metal artificial object of extreme age...
I'm seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than just Lovecraft.
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Old 09-19-2017, 12:39 PM   #1732
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Originally Posted by Joe View Post
]octopuses have built a giant underwater city named Octlantis
Even more astonishing than the fact that the octopuses engineered this city is that human scientists have learned their language in order to be able to report the name that the octopuses gave their metropolis. And no one even reported on that breakthrough...
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Old 09-19-2017, 12:48 PM   #1733
Flyndaran
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I just realized Octlantis could be said with a beak and no lips... interesting. All the evidence I need.
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Old 09-21-2017, 02:23 PM   #1734
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Default Re: Real-Life Weirdness

1978: Random House has to recall a cookbook, Woman's Day Crockery Cuisine, after realizing that one of the recipes "could cause a serious explosion."
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Old 09-21-2017, 05:18 PM   #1735
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There have been similar issues with recipes including nutmeg which can be toxic and somewhat horrifically hallucinogenic in high doses.
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Old 09-21-2017, 06:27 PM   #1736
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There have been similar issues with recipes including nutmeg which can be toxic and somewhat horrifically hallucinogenic in high doses.
Or in some cases low doses; my husband has a sensitivity to the stuff and those effects kick in at any dosage. Means we have to be extremely careful of labelling and can't buy desserts.
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Old 09-21-2017, 07:03 PM   #1737
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We are now entering pumpkin spice season. My condolences.
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Old 09-23-2017, 11:14 AM   #1738
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First excerpt from the New York Times, second from the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1990: a tradition of macabre feasts, perfect for subjecting a group of players to a refined evening with their rich, powerful, villainous antagonist.

From the NYT, the "Hell Banquet" of the Roman emperor Diometian:

Quote:
...the glowering, paranoid Roman emperor Domitian... a room black from floor to ceiling, lit by low-burning lamps, with each guest’s name engraved on a *tombstone-like stela. The food: of the kind normally offered to the dead, and entirely black. The emperor spoke of mortality as his guests, the city’s leading lights, ate in silence, convinced they were supping at their own funeral... Instead, each was presented with his personal gravestone from the table, which turned out to be made of silver...
From the Oxford Symposium, a Carnival pre-Lenten feast: (warning, contemporary racial term employed)

Quote:
...even the garden.. paths had been gravelled in coal, its little pool edged with basalt and filled with ink, its plantings made dark in cypress and pine. The dining table was decorated with baskets of violets and scabiosa set on its black cloth, while lighting was supplied by chandeliers of votive candles and candelabra putting forth green flames. A hidden orchestra played dirges for guests served by nude negresses, their stockings of silver cloth strewn with teardrops... turtle soup, black Russian rye bread, black olives, caviar, smoked Frankfurt boudin noirs, pourtages of mullet, coulis of truffles, and sauces for game the colour of liquorice and boot-blacking; desserts included chocolate creams, puddings and fruits such as raisins, black cherries and plums; the drinks in dark glasses featured the most deeply colored wines: Tenedos, Roussillon, or Port; all finished off with coffee, walnut liqueur, kvass, porter and stout.
(Minor edit: I learn upon a more thorough reading of the source that the feast described is literary, but that its author threw a similar and indeed even more elaborate Carnival feast for his guests, so I will leave it here as exemplary.)

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Old 09-23-2017, 11:00 PM   #1739
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Quote:
Originally Posted by William View Post
First excerpt from the New York Times, second from the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1990: a tradition of macabre feasts, perfect for subjecting a group of players to a refined evening with their rich, powerful, villainous antagonist.

From the NYT, the "Hell Banquet" of the Roman emperor Diometian:



From the Oxford Symposium, a Carnival pre-Lenten feast: (warning, contemporary racial term employed)



(Minor edit: I learn upon a more thorough reading of the source that the feast described is literary, but that its author threw a similar and indeed even more elaborate Carnival feast for his guests, so I will leave it here as exemplary.)
Yet more proof that reality is odder than fiction. The above would be called 'melodramatic' or 'unbelievable' or cinematic villain stuff' if used in fiction, but reality can overmatch it. It's truly impressive what rich, protected, bored, and twisted people can come up with to indulge themselves.
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Old 09-25-2017, 07:54 AM   #1740
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The post-French-Revolution food critic Grimeaux (I'm probably spelling/remembering that wrong) held a notorious Black Feast in honor of the slain and celebrating the birth of a "new dark age". It was much like the pre-Lent feast, although I think the wait staff were clothed, with the added twist of being served off a coffin and the guest of honor being a live pig.

Being inducted into his "club" of friends required slamming back 17 cups of black coffee.

He was a weird duck.
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