Subject: Aztec Self-flipping Tortilla

From: [email-masked] (Leo Lazauskas)
Date: 13 May 1995 21:55:50 +0930

Our department attracts the usual weirdos: trisectors, purveyors of
             .     .              (virtual) perpetual motion machines,
        .             * .         Abianites, roulette "theorists", etc.
                       *          But today's genius was special. He
     .                  *   .     claimed to have read as a child that
                         *  *     Aztec women had developed a sort of
   .                    * * * .   self-flipping tortilla.
                         *  *
     .                   *  .     He sketched out a diagram for me from
                        *         a somewhat dim memory.
        .             *  .
             .     .*             In my diagram, the tortilla boundary
                                  as ".", corn kernels are shown as "*".

The idea is that the corn kernels pop thereby lifting the edge of the
solidifying batter. The exact position and number of kernels, he told me,
"Has been lost for a thousand years."

My wife and I tried this with an ordinary pancake and popping corn, but
we could only get the edge to jump up a small distance.

Have I passed up the idea of a lifetime? Or was I right to tell him
that he was a genius, that only our Prof. would be able to help him
with the formidable mathematics involved, and that my name was
Mumble Mumble.

Leo "or should we use jumping beans?" Lazauskas

---

From: [email-masked] (Thomas Wicklund)
Date: 18 May 1995 01:28:29 GMT

>Leo "or should we use jumping beans?" Lazauskas

Right.  This is a troll.  May I suggest your problem could be solved by
using an habanero suppository?

Regards!
Lin

---

From: [email-masked] (Leo Lazauskas)
Date: 25 May 1995 04:41:36 +0930

>May I suggest your problem could be solved by using an habanero suppository?

I'm reminded of an old tale about Errol Flynn. Apparently he tied a
long piece of string to a metal washer and fed it to a duck. Ducks pass
metal almost immediately so our Errol soon had a whole line of them
strung from arsehole to breakfast. Sounds a bit like Mexican "food"
doesn't it.

Incidentally, do Mexicans use chillies to cover up the taste of whoofy
meat in the same way Indians use curry and the English use hot mustard?

Leo " will not program for 'food' " Lazauskas

---

From: [email-masked] (Linda Shapcott)
Date: 26 May 1995 09:22:37 GMT

Leo Lazauskas ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Thomas Wicklund) writes:
: >[email-masked] (Leo Lazauskas) writes:
: >>Leo "or should we use jumping beans?" Lazauskas

: >May I suggest your problem could be solved by using an habanero suppository?

: I'm reminded of an old tale about Errol Flynn. Apparently he tied a
: long piece of string to a metal washer and fed it to a duck. Ducks pass
                                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^
: metal almost immediately so our Errol soon had a whole line of them
: strung from arsehole to breakfast. Sounds a bit like Mexican "food"
: doesn't it.

: Incidentally, do Mexicans use chillies to cover up the taste of whoofy
: meat in the same way Indians use curry and the English use hot mustard?

: Leo " will not program for 'food' " Lazauskas

Silly... it wasn't ducks, it was platypus(es) (ii)??... You should read a 
book called "My Wicked Wicked Ways" - that's where the story came from.  
You're not repeating information you heard from a FOAF, are you?  Tsk tsk...

byee

Linda

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 13:00:23 GMT

>strung from arsehole to breakfast. Sounds a bit like Mexican "food"

Minor nitpicking point here: the incident is related in Flynn's autobiography, 
"My Wicked, Wicked Ways," and the item tied to the string was a piece of salt 
pork, not  a metal washer.

Sorry, but I am a compulsive pedant.

The Elitist

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 13:01:40 GMT

>You're not repeating information you heard from a FOAF, are you?  Tsk tsk...

No, I have read the book.  It was certainly not platypuses, not that it 
couldn't have been..it was definitely ducks, which are much easier to find.

The Elitist

---

From: [email-masked] (John Varela)
Date: 27 May 1995 01:28:26 GMT

In <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Gerald Belton) writes:

>I can't say I have authoritative information, but it does seem that cultures 
>with hot climates also have spicy food.  Witness Cajun, Mexican, Thai, 
>Vietnamese, Szechuan, Caribbean, etc.  

Pepper makes you sweat.  Sweating cools you off.  Q.E.D.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 May 95 15:29:12 PDT

> meat in the same way Indians use curry and the English use hot mustard?

Having read this, I expected a real storm to blow up.  I have seen this
theory about the use of spices suggested and refuted in many different
places - on newsgroups, and in various books.  The usual context in
which this theory is mentioned is a discussion of Indian food.

I have no idea what to believe in this debate.  Does anyone have any 
authoritative info about whether this theory is true or not?

Just curious,
Kate

---

From: [email-masked] (Gerald Belton)
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 15:29:13

I can't say I have authoritative information, but it does seem that cultures 
with hot climates also have spicy food.  Witness Cajun, Mexican, Thai, 
Vietnamese, Szechuan, Caribbean, etc.  
--
"In the old days, being crazy meant something.        I don't speak 
 Nowdays, everybody's crazy."                         for Tulane, I just
                     --Charles Manson                 work here.

---

From: [email-masked] (David Gillies)
Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 15:03:37 GMT

>Vietnamese, Szechuan, Caribbean, etc.  
Explain English mustard then. I don't think I've ever heard England being
accused of having a hot climate. In fact, it's said we don't have a climate,
just weather (and lots of it). Bradford is rainy, cold and humid, and we have
more curry houses per head of population than anywhere else in the world.
While this is no doubt largely due to the high proportion of Asian-origin
residents, the biggest group of customers is the white population, so I don't
think it's a cultural thing.

______________________________________________________
@-|~ (Scientist formerly known as David A. G. Gillies)
		      (email: [email-masked])
You are in a maze of kinky little fetishes,  all alike
(c) 1995 Wittgenstein's Amazing Underwater Supermarket
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

---

From: [email-masked] (Carl Johnson)
Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 16:25:43 GMT

John Varela ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Gerald Belton) writes:

: >I can't say I have authoritative information, but it does seem that cultures 
: >with hot climates also have spicy food.  Witness Cajun, Mexican, Thai, 
: >Vietnamese, Szechuan, Caribbean, etc.  

: Pepper makes you sweat.  Sweating cools you off.  Q.E.D.

Assuming the humidity is low enough that your sweat evaporates.  That is
not necessarily true in much of SE Asia and probably the Caribbean.

-- 

Carl Johnson              [email-masked]