Wasn’t Cnid Vermicious one of the Sex Pistols?
Interesting that you should mention this. I once happened upon a mystery story that was published in a kids’ magazine, oh, back around 1982. It was one of those can-you-guess-the-answer-before-our-hero-does stories, and centered upon a couple of scientists in an Arctic outpost who were rivals. They get caught in a blizzard and spend about a week out in the wilderness before they are rescued. Upon returning to base, the one comes down with a mysterious illness and the other is accused of foul play. As it turns out, the two had killed a polar bear during their ordeal and the gentleman who became ill had eaten part of the bear’s liver. Reading through the victim’s journal, our hero notices this part of the story and voila! The truth is revealed.
I was about ten or eleven when I read this, and the magazine in which the story appeared was intended for an audience of that age. I could not, for the life of me, understand how the author came to the conclusion that your average fifth grader would know about the toxic level of vitamin A in polar bear liver.
This can be counteracted by mixing it with goat meat, in a cannon.
Or trebuchet.
Greenlandic shark is poisonous unless properly prepared.
“Properly” being a relative term, of course :eek:
I thought vulture meat was inedible due to the amount of carrion they eat. Anybody know more about that?
How many of these examples demonstrate situations where the meat itself is toxic rather than the toxin being contained in a gland that could be damaged by improper handling or preparation which would then contaminate otherwise edible tissue?
Aside from polar bear liver that is.
New Squidgoat Puffs! From Post!
Shot from cannons!
I don’t think it’s a coincidence, actually. The natives of the region just use the same (or very similar) onomotopæa for “patooie” that we do, and named the bird for its foul taste.