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BS: Grossology

26 Dec 01 - 08:18 PM (#616746)
Subject: Grossology
From: GUEST,Desdemona

I'm starting this thread since, after clicking o the link so kindly provided by Amos on the "folk science" thread, I thought this topic worthy of closer examination.

If you haven't had the pleasure, PLEASE:

http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns232216

This woman employs a method of teaching science called "grossology" to keep interested, and I can see how it works; when my son was studying Egypt a couple years ago, he really started getting fired up about the topic when he learnt all the nauseating details of the embalming processes used for mummies: the liquefication of the deceased's brain matter with a special little whisk-like tool was especially fascinating to him, particularly when he saw how this info made his grandmother blanch when he shared it with her over dinner in a posh restaurant!

I predict a great future foir Grossology as an academic discipline, albeit one adopted almost exclusively by males!


26 Dec 01 - 08:24 PM (#616747)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Sorcha

No, our Darling Daughter loves it too. I have to admit, I love my new potato ricer. The holes are about 1/4". Large, for a ricer, and the bashed potatoes ooze up looking like worms............I grossed Bubba (22) out with that one! I loved it!


26 Dec 01 - 08:31 PM (#616749)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST,Desdemona

I stand corrected; as the bearer of only male children, and the godmother of 2 Uber Girly-Girls, I'm uneducated in the ways of budding female grossologists!

(Play doh squeezed through a grlic press creates a similar effect!)


26 Dec 01 - 08:34 PM (#616752)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Amos

Hey, Des, whazzup? You have so much to say about pee, poop, farts and BO that one thread isn't big enough? LOL!!

The really great thing about Grossology is instead of being guilty of a sin against the Infinite, when you fart in your pew, you can blame it all on your bacteria -- a little piece of ecological balance the medievalists never thought of -- and they can all burn in eternity instead of you!!

A


26 Dec 01 - 08:38 PM (#616753)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Genie

I think OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) recently had a Grossology exhibit here in Portland. One of the posters ( on the side of a Tri-Met bus) showed a cartoon of a king sitting on the 'throne,' with the caption: "Know Thy Poop."

Genie


26 Dec 01 - 09:56 PM (#616784)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST,MAG at work

I'm (still) a young people's librarian and can attest to the drawing power of grossology.

The most popular book in the juvenile cookery section is *It's Disgusting -- and we Ate It!* (no lie.)

Muscially I'm sure you all remember Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,
GuessI'll eat a worm,
Short ones, fat ones, long ones, skinny ones
Guess I'll eat a worm.

Other popular ... oh, never mind. Go to your local library and your very own librarian will fill you in.


26 Dec 01 - 10:06 PM (#616788)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Liz the Squeak

Yep, the ickier the better.... Why do you think Roald Dahl did so well with his 'Revolting Rhymes' and the disgusting recipe book.

The biggest laugh in the Harry Potter film is when they remove Harry's wand from the troll's nose with the line "Eeuugh, troll bogies".....

Here's a bit of 'grossology' to throw into the dinner conversation. In Rekyavik they have a museum totally dedicated to the penis. It contains the stuffed, mummified and presevered penis of almost every type of creature. The Wright Whale has one over 6' long, that's as long as the average bed......

LTS


26 Dec 01 - 10:18 PM (#616792)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST,Desdemona

I've never been to Iceland, and now I have the perfect reason.....!


26 Dec 01 - 10:35 PM (#616801)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: kj...

....well it could be a fatal encounter.....but interesting....worth considering.....hmmmmm....

:)kj

...anybody need the recipe for dump cake....only mildly gross but edible....


27 Dec 01 - 02:38 AM (#616895)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST,Grammar Police

Thats "Right" whale.
Former children's librarian
Proud papa of a female grossaholic 10.5 yr-old


27 Dec 01 - 04:28 AM (#616915)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Mark Cohen

Were you thinking of any bed in particular, Liz? By the way, it's the right (not Wright) whale, which, as I learned it, was so named by whalers because all its components (oil, blubber, etc.) were of the kind and quality most in demand in the marketplace, making it the "right" whale to hunt. I don't know if the same could be said for its genitalia, though.

I don't know why, but that reminds me of the story about the three samurai warriors who were vying for the hand of the Emperor's daughter. The Emperor opened a little box, releasing a fly into the room. Samurai #1 neatly dispatched the poor insect with his sword. Samurai #2 did the same to the next fly, but he did it blindfolded. Samurai #3 slashed smartly with his sword at the third fly...which continued to buzz about the room. "He still flies," said the Emperor, disapprovingly. "Yes, Sire," said the warrior. "But he will never reproduce."

Aloha,
Mark


27 Dec 01 - 04:29 AM (#616916)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: leprechaun

I guess that would make you squeak.


27 Dec 01 - 04:16 PM (#617189)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST

Science Museum of Minnesota recently had the Grossology exhibit too.


27 Dec 01 - 04:30 PM (#617200)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: fat B****rd

Wahoo !! Anyone read their kids "Fungus the Bogeyman" ??


27 Dec 01 - 04:49 PM (#617220)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST,MAG at work, again

probably already in the DB, but more kids' folklore, for any lingering doubters of short memory:

Great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat,
Little birdie's dirty feet
Great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
And I forgot my spoon!
(But not my straw ...)


27 Dec 01 - 07:32 PM (#617333)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST

Another childhood classic is The Slugs, or The Slug Family, something like that. We love 'em.


28 Dec 01 - 10:22 AM (#617590)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: RichM

Here's another tale for all you grossologists;

From this morning's newspaper--
Viking Breath
Travel broadens the palate, writes Jonathan Young in the Sunday Telegraph:
" 'First you urinate on the meat, then bury it for four months before digging it up and eating it raw,' explained Loftur, pushing a saucer of diced Greenland shark towards us. It sounds like a joke...'No, really, it's a traditional Icelandic dish, insisted Loftur, popping an off-grey cube into his mouth and gulping down a shot of brennivin(literally "burnt wine"). 'Go on!' The sensation was not unpleasant-- so long as I remembered not to breathe. If I did, ammonia of rotted shark gave my lungs a sound kicking and threatened to coax up yesterday's breakfast."

I think I'll wait for the vegetarian version...

Rich


28 Dec 01 - 12:21 PM (#617636)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Don Firth

Lutefisk.

Don Firth


28 Dec 01 - 12:44 PM (#617647)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: Clinton Hammond

Heh!

A chummer and I once crashed a university lecture on Forensic Entomology cause we had nothing else better to do for a few hours... Much to the chagrin of most of the folks around me, I brought a plastic bowl of leftover pasta and tomato sauce to munch on while watching time last footage of various bugs breaking down a cadaver...

We giggled through the whole thing!

I'm glad I wasn't sitting near us, trying to take notes to pass a test on the subject or anything...

;-)


28 Dec 01 - 01:39 PM (#617676)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: kendall

The "right whale" was also named so because it did not sink when killed.


28 Dec 01 - 03:59 PM (#617740)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: GUEST,Desdemona

And with his special qualities, I suppose he'd qualify as "MR. Right Whale"!


28 Dec 01 - 04:19 PM (#617749)
Subject: RE: BS: Grossology
From: SharonA

I've never been to Iceland, either, Desdemona, and now I too have the perfect reason NOT TO EVER BE IN ICELAND!!!!

Lutefisk AND a penis museum.... eeuugghh.

BTW, Liz the Squeak, they changed that line in the Americanized version ("Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone") to read "troll boogers" ....I have to wonder what ELSE the Americanizers of those books fiddled with! *grumble grumble grumble*