I walk the earth
Feb. 26th, 2004 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaApologies to the dieters out there. After yesterday's chocolate outburst, today it's biscuits.
Yesterday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grumblesmurf was heard to wonder, while rummaging in the biscuit tin, why Garibaldi biscuits were so named. What was the link between revolutionaries and biscuits ?
Being blessed both with a reputation for knowing useless trivia and with the ability to say anything with a straight face, I nearly managed to persuade him that Garibaldi invented them. Sadly, his natural curmudgeonly suspicion carried the day, and I had to concede I was making it up. I promised to find out why they were called after the Italian chap.
So, I typed "Why are Garibaldi biscuits so called?" into AskJeeves. I'd like to report that for once in his life, Jeeves came back with the right answer; I'm sure that would make a nice narrative twist. However, he didn't, he produced his usual meaningless pile of garbage. I only tried to give the old boy a chance.
A lengthy session with google produced nothing much more informative. One encyclopaedia says they are named after Garibaldi "apparently arbitrarily", and there are vague references to them being named "in his honour".
The only explanation going seems to be from an off hand remark on the home page of Stirling, in Scotland:
All that remains of Scotland's love of Garibaldi today is our fondness for Garibaldi biscuits, which had their origin in the flour and raisin rations for his army.
Which is plausible, I guess.
It's quite interesting, you know, the number of biscuits that are named after revolutionaries. You've got your Garibaldi, of course, you've got your Bourbons, then of course you've got your Peek Freens Trotsky Assortment.
I'll post a squashed-fly biscuit to the first person who can, without cheating, correctly attribute that quote.
(Cheating is defined as using search-engines, searching offline databases, or anything else I arbitrarily and retroactively define to be cheating.)
Yesterday,
grumblesmurf was heard to wonder, while rummaging in the biscuit tin, why Garibaldi biscuits were so named. What was the link between revolutionaries and biscuits ?Being blessed both with a reputation for knowing useless trivia and with the ability to say anything with a straight face, I nearly managed to persuade him that Garibaldi invented them. Sadly, his natural curmudgeonly suspicion carried the day, and I had to concede I was making it up. I promised to find out why they were called after the Italian chap.
So, I typed "Why are Garibaldi biscuits so called?" into AskJeeves. I'd like to report that for once in his life, Jeeves came back with the right answer; I'm sure that would make a nice narrative twist. However, he didn't, he produced his usual meaningless pile of garbage. I only tried to give the old boy a chance.
A lengthy session with google produced nothing much more informative. One encyclopaedia says they are named after Garibaldi "apparently arbitrarily", and there are vague references to them being named "in his honour".
The only explanation going seems to be from an off hand remark on the home page of Stirling, in Scotland:
All that remains of Scotland's love of Garibaldi today is our fondness for Garibaldi biscuits, which had their origin in the flour and raisin rations for his army.
Which is plausible, I guess.
It's quite interesting, you know, the number of biscuits that are named after revolutionaries. You've got your Garibaldi, of course, you've got your Bourbons, then of course you've got your Peek Freens Trotsky Assortment.
I'll post a squashed-fly biscuit to the first person who can, without cheating, correctly attribute that quote.
(Cheating is defined as using search-engines, searching offline databases, or anything else I arbitrarily and retroactively define to be cheating.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:05 am (UTC)You really should check out his stuff though, it's very funny.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:07 am (UTC)1. Stalin
2. Jethro Tull
3. Jonathan Ross
4. Barbara Windsor
5. John Lydon
I'll be back with more later, as I think the above are untenable. It would be funny if one were true, though. ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:09 am (UTC)Call it an award for correct use of the subjunctive in the above comment, or something. Mail me your address or provide the name of a reputable supplier of correctly-trained homing pigeons.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:11 am (UTC)(Address is on its way over in a minute.)
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Date: 2004-02-26 03:02 am (UTC)But I hope I've got it wrong if you're going to carry out your threat.
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Date: 2004-02-26 03:04 am (UTC)Depends whether your fear of Garibaldis or your desire to display your pop culture knowledge is stronger, I guess :)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:19 am (UTC)Further bisuitage to anyone who can say which episode, though.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:49 am (UTC)Is it the one where hte house gets destroyed - 'Bomb' I think?
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 11:47 am (UTC)It *is* the University Challenge episode, which is called 'Bambi'.
The relevant scene it comes from is just after Rik complains about the train being stopped (because Vyvyan pulls the emergency stop cord after he's stuck his head out of the window and it's been lopped off). This would be just after Vyv's finished doing his revision from the Daily Mirror Book of Facts and has gone off to 'stuff loads and loads of paper down the toilet'.
Not that I happen to know that episode reasonably well or anything...
I must have been unconsciously channelling Alexei as it wasn't a deliberate quote inspired by a tin full of Garibaldis.
I'll pass on the biscuit this time though Liz, but you can score bonus points if you can find me an MP3 of 'Dr Martens Boots'. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-27 01:50 am (UTC)Dr Marten's, Dr Marten's, Dr Marten's BOOTS!
Can't oblige, I'm afraid :(
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:21 am (UTC)Which is a shame as I LOVE squashed fly biscuits, the only other biscuit that comes close is the Figgy Roll.
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Date: 2004-02-26 03:26 am (UTC)Fig rolls, however, rock. Absolutely.
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Date: 2004-02-26 03:28 am (UTC)Bad planning, I call it.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 03:37 am (UTC)However I did notice that Ash wednesday was commented on above teh date, but Shrove tuesday was not.....
And is "pulveration" really a lost word?. I mean I know what that means because i know the word "pulverise".
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 04:10 am (UTC)I'm impressed.
Date: 2004-02-26 08:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-01 06:32 am (UTC)What was even more worrying was that today I managed to convince a colleague that Bourbons were so called because they were made with whisky.