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| India-Pakistan | |
| Eat rats to battle food crisis: Indian official | |
| 2008-08-19 | |
| We don't have an "Ohfergawdsake" category, more's the pity. A state government in eastern India is encouraging people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks. Authorities in Bihar, one of India's poorest states, are asking rich and poor alike to switch to eating rats in a bid to reduce the dependence on rice. The article doesn't say what political party this guy's in. Whichever one it is, I suggest voting for the other one. Trust me on that.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #21 Spiders, surely? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-19 23:29 |
| #20 Lobsters are giant swimming cockroaches with claws! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-08-19 23:24 |
| #19 Same with lobster in 18th and early 19th century New England. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-08-19 23:13 |
| #18 (who was the first starving person to eat an oyster?) Oysters were a dietary staple of the poor in 18th century england. As was salmon. I recall a diary of apprentice from the time who bemoaned having had to eat salmon every day for an entire month. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-08-19 16:05 |
| #17 I'll have the magic chicken for $20 Red Dawg. Seen them episodes, when the big dude turns tail whoah nelly. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-08-19 15:19 |
| #16 Haz anyone watched the Travel Program on Tee Wee? Where two different "Gourmandos" travel around the World eating the most WEIRD DISGUSTING FOOD? ...bleah.. TRUE: Dead Sheep's Brain which has been left buried and fermenting in the skull for months on end in Morocco. [STANKS TO HIGH HEAVEN] Live Super Super extra slimy worms [not grubs] eaten alive. Fried Hogs Lower Intestine with the poop left in...etc. Well which would you rather eat, that garbage above or a fresh roasted country rat on a stick? I for one would rather eat the Grass Rat freshly roasted than the fermented sheep's brain etc. |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2008-08-19 14:56 |
| #15 "Patna" is also the name of the ship abandoned at the start of "Lord Jim", for whatever that's worth. |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-08-19 12:07 |
| #14 Killing and cleaning rats intimately exposes a person to parasites and infected tissues. That raises the probability of infection to a whole new level than stewing veggies that rat a nibbled or took a dump on. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-08-19 11:55 |
| #13 Squirrels are just tree rats, and I would guess that field rats or wharf rats taste similarly good. Food tastes of what it eats. Coutry squirrels eat nuts and berries. Wharf rats eat mostly garbage. Granary rats no doubt are as succulent and tender as grain-fed beef, but street and wharf rats eat garbage and drink effluent, and are as full of parasites as they are fleas. It beats listening to the kids cry themselves to sleep at night. True. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-19 11:52 |
| #12 Well, they're also great in stews. Now, I don't mean to brag, but I make a mean weed rat stew. |
| Posted by: Shrek 2008-08-19 11:49 |
| #11 The former chief minister of Bihar is a fellow named Laloo. He is now in the Indian federal cabinet (minister of railways). At one cabinet meeting he declared how disappointed he was as chief minister that he could not print his own money. He suggested that all states could do this and thereby solve their budget problems. He could then give pay rises to all the workers. The Indian finance minister (Harvard trained economist) said nothing. The Indian prime minister (Oxford trained economist) said nothing. He later wrote a memo to all his ministers pointing out that attendance at cabinet meetings was not a requirement. Ministers could send their civil servants instead. I suspect he didn't mean Vijay Prakash or anyone else close to Laloo. When Laloo was arrested a few years ago he was unable to run for reelection. He put his wife on the slate. She won. Rabri Devi is illiterate. She was placed in charge of a state with a population of 83 million people. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-19 11:48 |
| #10 ed, If you are already living in a rat-infested environment then you are already pretty thoroughly exposed to their carried diseases. And I don't know how many of those are still infectious through consumption after stewing with some root veggies, corn, limas for a few hours (wharf squirrel Brunswick stew). |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-08-19 11:44 |
| #9 Well, that's nitpicking, isn't it. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-19 11:43 |
| #8 Problem with rats is they carry too many diseases that transfer to humans. Not a recipe for a long and healthy life. Plus rats live communally so any disease spreads quickly. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-08-19 11:37 |
| #7 I always wondered why they didn't raise them and process them into cat food. |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-08-19 11:34 |
| #6 Squirrels are just tree rats, and I would guess that field rats or wharf rats taste similarly good. It beats listening to the kids cry themselves to sleep at night. I thought India was supposed to be this big technology, economic behemoth the likes of which the world has never seen? Kind of like China, eh? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-19 10:37 |
| #5 Maybe they should call the rats "squirrel deer" and no one would be any the wiser. It worked in the movie. |
| Posted by: tipper 2008-08-19 10:01 |
| #4 Patna is the capital of Bihar state. In Goa... Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik on Tuesday said commencement of trains from Patna would increase the number of beggars in the state. "Mostly all the beggars are from other states and train scheduled from Patna to Goa will create the problem," Naik said participating in the discussion during the ongoing State Legislative Assembly session. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-19 09:19 |
| #3 Records indicate that Rats gets a 8 out of 10 stars during the last days of any besieged city population. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-08-19 09:02 |
| #2 Rats are a reasonable source of animal protein. Clearly a more logical source than some other popular sources (who was the first starving person to eat an oyster?) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-08-19 09:01 |
| #1 Compare with NET > VARIOUS - HUMAN HUNTING WIPED OUT THE GIANT KANGAROOS. Time for a PETA Naked Babe Calendar. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-08-19 01:42 |