Apropos of nothing-except Maywong made the mistake of asking

[nancyskitties]

Re: Sucking eggs
Sent: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:27 pm
From: nancyskitties
To: maywong


*ahem*
Professor Von Nancy pontificates:

"... To teach your grandmother to suck eggs" is a very, very old euphamism dating back as far as the Romans & probably even earlier to, say, Homo Erectus, since it first crops up in Petronius' Satyricon in the chapters describing the obscenely ostentatious banquet of the noveau riche Trimalchio. The meaning today is obscure since for most moderns contact with eggs is limited to buying them in cartons of 12 or so as intended ingredients in a more comprehensive recipe (like cake), or ordering them cooked to taste at IHOP, but originally refers to a young(er) person barely experienced in (pick a subject) presuming to give advice on how to do something to someone who's been at it - & is an expert - far longer than the young(er) person.

I confess I've never known either of my grandmothers or anybody elses' for that matter ever sucking eggs. Maybe they had vastly different tastes in egg recipes 'way back then - or cooking eggs (or "eggeys" as Wycliff spelled it sometimes) was too much work.

The only reason I've ever heard of anyone consuming a raw egg by itself (that is, when it's not part of a cake mix, say, & you're licking the bowl - to which I readily admit guilt) is as part of an apocryphal cure for a hangover, in which a raw egg is broken into a shot or whiskey glass along with a few shots of Tobasco sauce & other ghastly stuff, then swallowed in one gulp, unmixed. I presume it's meant to induce vomiting (at least, it would me) & hasten sobriety, but I've never seen or known anyone who's actually done that, either. If you're gonna drink that much, one would think you're also prepared to feel like death warmed over for a day or so afterwards as a natural consequence. Bleah.

When I was a kid, at Easter we used to make holes in either end of an egg & blow the insides out, then color the empty shells, but we sure didn't get any actual egg on our lips, let alone swallow or suck it down. Eeeeewww - GROSS-!

[cirquemom]

NANCEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Okay, I'm behind times, because I see you've been back for a while and I completely missed it. Dealing with my own health crap...urgh. Still no answers, although after six hours with three different gamma cameras at Stanford Medical Center yesterday, and now officially glowing in the dark due to the radioactive isotopes they injected into me, hopefully will finally get some answers!

I'm glad you're still alive and here!!!!!!
****HUGS******

[nancyskitties]

Look at it this way: since you now glow in the dark, you can save on electricity & read by the light of your navel ... or whatever. Private PM en route.

[Llwynog]

Nancy! Right now there is nothing that could get me to eat a raw egg. The egg would probably make me as ill as death warmed over.

Cirquemom, you are your own night light.

[victoriavictrix]

As a teenager, before eggs were breeding grounds for salmonella, I consumed them raw all the time. Mixed with OJ and a little honey, this was a pre-Slimfast diet breakfast drink advocated by the Mod Models of the time.

Also, eggnog was traditionally made with raw eggs.

Raw eggs are generally not recommended these days unless you get the ones that have been sterilized by some sort of radiation.

[maywong]

LOL, yes I asked for it. My mother use to put a raw egg in my milk shakes when I had braces on my teeth. Since I couldn't eat solid food. (Please do not try this at home, unless you want to to take a risk at getting salmonella.)

[zirconmermaid]

This is totally the sort of thing that makes me love all of you! Don't forget bodybuilders and wrestlers, who used to eat 12 raw eggs a day! I don't know if they still do, however.

[nancyskitties]

"...When I was a boy I ate 6 dozen eggs every morning to help me get laaaaaarge; and now I'm a man I eat 12 dozen eggs, and I'm roughly the size of a baaaaaaarge...."
-- Gaston, Disney's 'Beauty & The Beast'
Mayhaps Disney is onto something?

[cirquemom]

Rent the movie "Rocky" (the first one, it's actually a good movie) and watch him crack open about a dozen eggs into a glass and then chug the entire thing down. Ugh. I can't even eat *slightly* runny eggs. They have to bounce off the wall and the yolk has to be powdery before I can eat them. Can't tolerate slimy textures...eek. I hate chocolate cherries for the same reason (that nasty slimey stuff inside of them....*shudder*).

[cirquemom]

Rent the movie "Rocky" (the first one, it's actually a good movie) and watch him crack open about a dozen eggs into a glass and then chug the entire thing down. Ugh. I can't even eat *slightly* runny eggs. They have to bounce off the wall and the yolk has to be powdery before I can eat them. Can't tolerate slimy textures...eek. I hate chocolate cherries for the same reason (that nasty slimey stuff inside of them....*shudder*).