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The Great Molasses Flood of 1919

#1
C C Offline
http://blogs.umb.edu/fiskecenter/2019/01...d-of-1919/
https://www.boston.com/news/history/2019...flood-1919
https://www.boston.com/news/history/2019...sses-flood
https://www.history.com/news/the-great-m...od-of-1919

EXCERPT: The torrent came without warning — and within minutes it was gone. But in those moments, just past noon on Jan. 15, 1919 when a storage tank containing 2.5 million gallons of molasses ruptured in Boston’s North End, it unleashed unimaginable devastation from which there was no escape. In what would become known as the “Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919,” the explosion of the massive container sent a “tidal wave of death and destruction stalking through North End Park and Commercial st.,” The Boston Globe reported at the time.

The viscous flood was propelled by its sheer weight, traveling as quickly as 35 mph and forming a wave that estimated in different accounts to be between 15 and 50 feet high. The sea of molasses demolished six buildings in its path and knocked down a support for the nearby elevated rail line. People, horses, trucks, and homes were swept away. Twenty-one people were killed and about 150 injured. Six of them were city workers who were eating their lunch when they were engulfed.

“Investigators said they never had a chance to escape so suddenly did disaster strike,” the Globe reported. The Boston Post reported the day after the disaster that many of its victims suffocated, were smothered in the molasses that enveloped the area, or were crushed by the wreckage it caused:

There was no escape from the wave. Caught, human being and animal alike could not flee. Running in it was impossible. Snared in its flood was to be stifled. Once it smeared a head–human or animal–there was no coughing off the sticky mass. To attempt to wipe it with hands was to make it worse. Most of those who died, died from suffocation. It plugged nostrils almost air-tight.

Survivors recalled only a slight rumble before the onslaught, which past itself in five minutes or less. The recovery would go on much longer — with some bodies not being found for weeks or months.

[...] H.P. Palmer, an accountant at the electric freight plant, told the newspaper he heard the low rumble around 12:30 p.m. “He looked out of the window, felt the building which he was in rocking, and at a glance saw that something dreadful had happened,” the Globe reported. “Within a minute huge streams of molasses began to run through the various streets and passageways, filing every section for two blocks.”

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#2
Magical Realist Offline
What a horrible way to die, in all that sticky nostril-clogging sweetness...
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#3
C C Offline
(Jan 21, 2019 08:03 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: What a horrible way to die, in all that sticky nostril-clogging sweetness...


If gone uneaten and stored in jars for ages to block the mice, I've always wondered if chocolate dipped or caramelized insects become mummified within the hardened coating.

_
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#4
confused2 Offline
I was once happily eating chocolate when a large beetle strolled into the chocolate arena and I picked it up and eat it without noticing - to start with. Beetles don't taste good and in kit form there's a lot of parts to them. If a 'Kill me now.' service had been available I would have gone for it.
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#5
C C Offline
(Jan 25, 2019 01:09 AM)confused2 Wrote: I was once happily eating chocolate when a large beetle strolled into the chocolate arena and I picked it up and eat it without noticing - to start with. Beetles don't taste good and in kit form there's a lot of parts to them. If a 'Kill me now.' service had been available I would have gone for it.


To mask that kind of opulent taste, no wonder sweet dip or spicy seasoning is called for.

The Chocolate Treat That Sprouted Legs -- in technicolor, 1950s retro-3D. For such I'd prefer the bland meaning of "horrorshow" rather than the Nadsat version. "Good, well, wonderful, excellent"? Suddenly Keanu Reeves's 1989 slacker adventure starts rubbing shoulders unexpectedly with Malcolm McDowell.

At least beetles and crickets can carry (harmless to humans???) parasites like horsehair worm.

Although rat lungworm supposedly stays confined to slugs and snails after the rodent feces part of their life-cycle, that nervous system horrorshow has nevertheless made crawly things in general less appetizing to me even as the occasional accident.

###
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#6
Zinjanthropos Offline
(Jan 25, 2019 01:09 AM)confused2 Wrote: I was once happily eating chocolate when a large beetle strolled into the chocolate arena and I picked it up and eat it without noticing - to start with. Beetles don't taste good and in kit form there's a lot of parts to them. If a 'Kill me now.' service had been available I would have gone for it.

Remember when I was around 10 years old. Had found enough empty Coca-Cola bottles to buy a Coffee Crisp chocolate bar, my favourite. Peeled back the wrapper exposing one end of the bar and took a bite. Chewed and gulped down thinking it tasted a little different. Didn't stop me from wanting another bite but when I looked at the bar there were several maggots or worms visible, wiggling around inside. No idea how many I consumed with one bite. Spent the rest of the day wondering if I was going to die. Was years before I had another Coffee Crisp but once again it’s become my favourite. 

However if I had a choice, I'd take maggot consumption over drowning in molasses .
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#7
RainbowUnicorn Offline
(Jan 25, 2019 05:22 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote:
(Jan 25, 2019 01:09 AM)confused2 Wrote: I was once happily eating chocolate when a large beetle strolled into the chocolate arena and I picked it up and eat it without noticing - to start with. Beetles don't taste good and in kit form there's a lot of parts to them. If a 'Kill me now.' service had been available I would have gone for it.

Remember when I was around 10 years old. Had found enough empty Coca-Cola bottles to buy a Coffee Crisp chocolate bar, my favourite. Peeled back the wrapper exposing one end of the bar and took a bite. Chewed and gulped down thinking it tasted a little different. Didn't stop me from wanting another bite but when I looked at the bar there were several maggots or worms visible, wiggling around inside. No idea how many I consumed with one bite. Spent the rest of the day wondering if I was going to die. Was years before I had another Coffee Crisp but once again it’s become my favourite. 

However if I had a choice, I'd take maggot consumption over drowning in molasses .




insect protein value is said to be quite substantial & superior to most other forms
irony of it being nestle as they have been known to be not really interested in environmental issues and best practices.
palm kernal oil etc....

Quote:Is Nestle using sustainable palm oil?

Food giant Nestle may be committed to responsibly sourcing 100 per cent of its palm oil by 2020, but that has not stopped the company being suspended from the influential Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) this week.Jun 28, 2018

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...me-country

i freely recognise that you cant be a "good company" if your not able to stay open...
however there are a few things i dont agree with and since the company operates confectionery which is a luxury item, i have always been happy to pay more or go without if that product is a negative on the global environmental system.
would people stop buying a confectionery brand if that same company killed whales ?


probably not.. why ?
because it harms the environment ? no ! because it doesnt fit with the morality of the product-customer-ideology around the benefit reward process.


people are a strange thing.

i make a deliberate attempt to buy only the most expensive confectionery after studying it to make sure it directly seeks to be environmentally sound.
also nationalized as a product of a country.
i dont want some cheap god-knows-what made in different countrys with no oversight or regulations.
i want a product that the entire countrys reputation stands behind in quality
so i buy local as much as possible also.
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