[Sca-cooks] I'm B-A-A-C-K....

[LaSarney3 at aol.com]

Hi, this is Laurie Sarney.  
 
I haven't contributed anything for over a year:  I spent last year out  of 
the e-mail loop. I managed to lose 94 pounds, so it was worth it.  Now  I'm 
trying to keep off what I've lost so far and lose another 100 this  year.  It's a 
lot harder now that I'm home and back, I fear, to my old  habits.  The other 
news is that the book I have been working on for the  last 2 years -- as a 
researcher, not the author--has just come out and is  getting rave reviews--many 
of which mention the research!  The book is John  Kelly's THE GREAT MORTALITY:  
AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF THE BLACK DEATH, THE  MOST DEVASTATING PLAGUE OF ALL 
TIME.  Needless to say, I'm very  pleased.  Well, actually, ecstatic would be a 
better description.
 
In one chapter I worked on, John made the inevitable non-specialists food  
mistake.  The Brits, as we all know, use the word "corn" for any gain, so  after 
reading a few British sources, he felt perfectly safe describing an  English 
peasant chomping away on an ear of corn.  When I told him that it  was a 
not-very-creative anachronism, he demurred at first until he remembered  that the 
Indians introduced the Pilgrims to corn.  I thought of you guys as  I recited 
the credo:  "no peppers, no tomatoes, no "Irish" potatoes, no  chocolate and 
unless you are talking about the East, no coffee either...(Is  that right?)  
 
I missed you all last year and I now have 243 digests to plow through, so  
it's going to take me a good while to catch up.  Can anyone give me a  
synopsis/list of the major threads?
 
Best wishes.  I will now go into lurk mode for a week or two (or  three) 
while I try to catch up.
 
Laurie