Food is an integral part of history, defining culture and sometimes playing a large role in the prosperity of certain regions, cities, or entire countries. Much of that history is taken for granted, and unique cuisine remains only locally known or its history is forgotten. But many dishes have connections to wider histories that illuminate the past and connect us to the people that came before us. Such is the history of the salt potatoes of Syracuse, New York.
In 1906, a famed explorer saw something on the horizon that would lead an expedition of men to search for a magnificent land they hoped would be full of new and undiscovered treasures for science.
One famous dolphin lived near the shores of New Zealand in the late 1800s, and swam alongside hundreds of ships, becoming a beloved figure to locals and foreigners alike, and described as ”the best known fish in the world.”
It was relatively common in the middle ages for Kings, royals, and various other titled men to die in combat, and they were at least usually expected to fight personally. Despite the dangers of medieval combat and the expectations of nobility, however, many at the highest levels of aristocracy died in less than noble mundane accidents, and even in embarrassing circumstances.
Its uses are vast and varied, but its risks are greater than some understand. It has been embroiled in politics and even war. It is, perhaps, the most interesting pharmaceutical in history.
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Of the 374 graduates of the US Military Academy class of 1942, seventy-nearly one in five- would not survive the war. Their names are engraved on a marker at the academy. Their stories deserve to be remembered, and I am committed, so far as my meager voice can, to tell the stories of all seventy.