[Sca-cooks] Metal poisoning with the fork

[Susan Lord Williams]

On May 11, 2014, at 4:40 PM, Susan Lord Williams <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:

>> It was that distortion I was tracing back, not Damian's account, which is  
>> an old one. Even if it was first printed in 1976, it would be a relatively  
>> recent invention (in food history terms).
>> 
>> As it is, I think this is an excellent illustration of how bogus ideas get  
>> about in food history. Someone probably paraphrased what they thought 
>> Damian  MEANT (he certainly doesn't say it) and at some point that paraphrase 
>> became a  quote (this is how an early twentieth century idea of Voltaire as 
>> someone who  would disagree with what someone said but defend to the death 
>> their right to say  it became an actual Voltaire "quote"). This (already ersatz) 
>> quote was then  misinterpreted to refer the Church's stance in general and 
>> the next thing you  know people are referring to a general prohibition of 
>> using anything but one's  hands to eat with (blithely ignoring the long use of 
>> knives and spoons).