When I brought myself downstairs this morning at 11:30, Mom and Dad were standing over the stovetop making breakfast together. Typical of my parents, Mom prepared the eggs (basted) and fried tomatoes, while Dad dealt with the pig.
Pork is an object of much contention within this household. Dad and my four brothers are ardent advocates of consuming the animal, while Mom and I hold that it is unhealthy and even harmful. To quote my mother: "As long as he cooks it himself, it's fine. I don't want to be party to his death - that's what I tell him."
I learned a while ago that pigs have only non-functional eccrine sweat glands. This explains why they roll in the mud - they have no other way to cool themselves. As omnivores, pigs eat nearly anything they set eyes on. Ever wonder why being called a pig is a terrible insult? Well, aside from the obvious connotation of greed, pigs will consume even their own excretions, rotting carcasses, and their offspring. Humans and other mammals sweat and exude toxins through eccrine sweat glands constantly. But pigs make use only of apocrine sweat glands – so although they smell, all the toxins from the trash they eat remains under their skin – in that fatty layer that we know as bacon and bacon rind, or cracklings.
In addition to the attractive picture painted above, pigs are hosts to a multitude of parasites and diseases to which humans are susceptible, including trichinosis and cysticercosis (roundworms and tapeworms). Yum, yum, yum!
While I don’t look at the first five books of the Old Testament as a code of law to be followed verbatim, I do think that God had reasons for many of the rules He gave. He said don’t eat pork – I think maybe He had a reason.
I learned a while ago that pigs have only non-functional eccrine sweat glands. This explains why they roll in the mud - they have no other way to cool themselves. As omnivores, pigs eat nearly anything they set eyes on. Ever wonder why being called a pig is a terrible insult? Well, aside from the obvious connotation of greed, pigs will consume even their own excretions, rotting carcasses, and their offspring. Humans and other mammals sweat and exude toxins through eccrine sweat glands constantly. But pigs make use only of apocrine sweat glands – so although they smell, all the toxins from the trash they eat remains under their skin – in that fatty layer that we know as bacon and bacon rind, or cracklings.
In addition to the attractive picture painted above, pigs are hosts to a multitude of parasites and diseases to which humans are susceptible, including trichinosis and cysticercosis (roundworms and tapeworms). Yum, yum, yum!
While I don’t look at the first five books of the Old Testament as a code of law to be followed verbatim, I do think that God had reasons for many of the rules He gave. He said don’t eat pork – I think maybe He had a reason.
3 comments:
I hope you at least offered to do the dishes or set the table, or is that too much of a busman's holiday?
Well Donald, I have been slacking. But! I do intend to slack less in the future. Table was already set . . .
but those toxins taste sooooooooooo good
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