Tag: Shakespeare’s plays
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Anorexia nervosa: The disease of self-starvation
Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric illness characterized by a persistent restriction of food intake, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted perception of one’s body. Its roots extend far into the past. The disease is most common in adolescent girls and young women,… Read more
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Eating pigs, cows, and horses
The history of food is also the history of civilization. At some point, every society had to discover which animals it could tame, breed, and domesticate. Pigs, cows, and horses were the best candidates, not only for the meat they would provide but also for… Read more
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Canine gerontology
Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel A lifelong friend is like a mirror. The friend reflects, comforts, takes, gives, and worries. Our dog, Matilda, is a lifelong friend. She is a twelve-year-old vizsla who is teaching her Mistress and Master how to grow old with grace. Vizslas… Read more
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Paella, the universal rice dish
Few dishes are as instantly recognizable as paella. With its golden rice, fragrant saffron, colorful vegetables, and a variety of meats or seafood, paella has become an international favorite. Enjoyed in countries around the world, it is served in elegant restaurants and roadside cafés alike,… Read more
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Dobosh torte, a culinary masterpiece
Few desserts have achieved the lasting acclaim accorded to the Dobosh torte (also known as Dobos torte). Behind its elegant appearance lies a story of culinary innovation, changing technology, and the flourishing café culture of nineteenth-century Budapest. Among those said to have admired it were… Read more
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Goulash: A symbol of Hungary
Known in Hungarian as gulyás, goulash is much more than a paprika-flavored stew. It is the product of over a thousand years of cultural evolution, reflecting the lives of medieval herdsmen, the influence of global exploration, the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, and the rise… Read more
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The cucumber: A fruit disguised as a vegetable
Botanically speaking, the cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is not a vegetable but a fruit—a berry-like fruit with a hard outer rind, the same category that includes melons, pumpkins, squash, and zucchini. Originating in South Asia, probably at the foothills of the Himalayas, wild cucumbers have accompanied… Read more
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Determination of death
G. Blake PierpointNorfolk, Virginia, United States The first time I watched someone be declared dead, his heart was still beating. Each contraction drew a steep red wave across the monitor. The ventilator delivered sixteen breaths a minute, raising his chest to the same height each… Read more
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Goosebumps: When the body remembers
Fadime PalaScottsdale, Arizona The “goosebumps reflex” is a fascinating living evidence of evolution, a mechanism inherited from millions of years when the ancestors of humans were far hairier than today’s humans. Then, as today, they had at the base of every hair a tiny smooth… Read more
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Psychosis and Western cultural history
Colleen DonnellyDenver, Colorado, United States In her dictated autobiography, written in the latter part of the fourteenth century, Margery Kempe offers a first-person description of postpartum psychosis, experienced after the birth of one of her fourteen children. She attributed this period to her struggles with… Read more
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A bleeding crisis in the air
George DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States As a former frequent flyer, I recall a crisis at 35,000 feet in which I played a part. I had just settled down to watch for the second time the exploits of a policeman who never failed to solve a… Read more
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Zenexton: Early modern plague prophylactics
Christopher DuffinLondon, England Plague was an ever-present threat and source of anxiety during early modern times. Bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic forms regularly swept through Tudor and Stewart England with little respite between successive epidemics. Blamed variously on divine wrath, astrological events in the heavens, pestilential… Read more