[Sca-cooks] Shave Ice history

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Susan Fox-Davis wrote:

> Selene here.  Many ice cream web sites tell a virtually identical tale
> about Roman Emperor Nero and Alexander the Great rather than the
> Shogun.  Everyone wants a piece of the action!

FWIW, I would guess that some unmeasurable, but quite large, percentage
of the stories told about Nero are untrue. He was not a good emperor, by
most accounts, but he was not quite the psychopath he is painted as by
many historians (neither was Caligula, whose biggest motive force
appears to have been utter, and probably well-deserved, contempt for the
Senate, which was also part of Nero's problem).

I haven't seen any evidence, for example, of Nero playing any musical
instrument whatsoever while Rome burned, nor that he started the fire.
He was by no means a major persecutor of Christians, compared to many
others, including Claudius, his predecessor.

There's somebody that Nero reminds me of; I can't think who it is, but
it's right on the tip of my tongue... a not especially able leader who
got his job through illegal means and help from a parent, wishing to
present himself as far more intelligent and creative than he actually
was, and who squandered the Treasury in an attempt to win popular
support...

But I digress. My point was only that it's almost as if the fact that a
story is told about Nero is almost a guarantee that it is not true. An
area in which he appears to differ from that other head of state I was
thinking of...

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98