[Sca-cooks] Goatee stories - Rockrose

Saint Phlip phlip at 99main.com
Wed Jan 9 08:00:46 PST 2008


Suey, while your story is a cute, silly little story, I'm afraid its
contact with reality is minimal, beyond there are such things as
goats, there were such things as Pharoahs, and Pharoahs did wear false
beards.

Aside from the difficulty of translating a term across several
languages, and a couple of millenia and having it remain recognizable,
have you ever smelled a goat?

A gentleman goat in full possession of his parts is, um, "intensely
fragrant", to the extent that he'd give a skunk a good run for his
money. The fragrance comes primarily from glands at the base of their
horns, in both males and females, however male goats are much stronger
smelling. The function of the odor is to induce estrus, and gentleman
goats enhance this odor by smearing it around as much as they can, as
well as by deliberately peeing on their own beards.

Believe me, a goat's beard is not something anyone would want to
smell, no matter what the current fashion is.

And, most scent bases don't smell very good by themselves, but rather
have the characteristic of helping other scents become enhanced. Thus,
the story, while cute, even if using the right compound ( labdanum
rather than laudanum ) is unlikely in the extreme.

On Jan 8, 2008 4:10 PM, Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:
> I like goatee stories. As one of you blew my bubble on goatie goats who
> ate coffee beans, therefore, the discovery of coffee in the Middle East!
> Here's another - now I've got another one:
>    Goats came in handy as laudanum collecting devices from rockrose.
> While they munched on the plant, the oil stuck to their beards. Annually
> the beards were cut and the oil extracted, i.e. those that the pharaohs
> did not keep for themselves. They glued the goatees to their chins in
> order to smell good and that is how the word for this type of beard came
> into being. The other goatees were heated, which released the oils.
> Laudanum came to substitute ambergris.
>    Has any tasted rockrose seed bread? What does it taste like?
> Suey

-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow


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