Monday, February 23, 2009

Syr Randall and The Parsleye

Years, nay decades ago, I was active in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). It was fun dressing forsoothly and delighting in combat with my peers on the windy plains of Michigan and thereabouts.

One problem is that I had only the vaguest notion about athletics. I was healthy and reasonably large, but mostly I got by with cheerful daring rather than skill and practice. Ah youth!

Not that my friends & I didn't try to improve our performance by thinking (...as opposed to, say, aerobic conditioning...). We understood that dehydration was a problem in the long-drawn out woods battles. Rumor had it potassium replenishment would be helpful ... but how to carry potassium-bearing foodstuff into battle?

"Bananas are a good source of potassium!" we cried! But there are two problems with carrying those golden fingers into battle: imprimis, they didn't look like anything I'd recognize in any period illustration, and secundus, they splatter when hit. I didn't want a pouch full of banana jelly in the hot hot sun.

"Parsley!" said a friend (was it Jon the Hobbit? I don't recall). "Just the thing! Laden with potassium, conveniently bite-sized, and splatter-resistant!"

It sounded ideal. I gave it a try. You may infer the results from my expression:

1 comment:

Jon said...

I only wish I had said it, or something even worse!