Cabeza de Vaca - Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America
Which is the first person narration of Cabeza de Vaca's 8 years in North America. One of only 4 survivors of the 1527 Narvaez expedition (from 400 initially) he became one of the first Europeans to cross North America, his odyssey saw him taken slave by various of the Native tribes as he worked his way from Florida to Mexico City - plain speaking, he embellishes nothing - yet, given his ordeal he is remarkably precise about locations, times and distances, as well as offering some cultural insights into the peoples he met.
I love this sort of stuff - History is much more interesting when told to you through the eyes of it's witnesses.
Chapter 21
Five Christians quartered on the coast came to the extremity of eating each other. Only the body of the last one, whom nobody was left to eat, was found unconsumed. Their names were Sierra, Diego Lopez, Corral, Palacios, and Gonzalo Ruiz.
Chapter 23
THE ISLANDERS wanted to make physicians of us without examination or a review of diplomas. Their method of cure is to blow on the sick, the breath and the laying-on of hands supposedly casting out the infirmity. They insisted we should do this too and be of some use to them. We scoffed at their cures and at the idea we knew how to heal. But they withheld food from us until we complied.
Chapter 35
They said that a little man wandered through the region whom they called Badthing [Mala Cosa]. He had a beard and they never saw his features distinctly. When he came to a house, the inhabitants trembled and their hair stood on end. A blazing brand would suddenly shine at the door as he rushed in and seized whom he chose, deeply gashing him in the side with a very sharp flint two palms long and a hand wide. He would thrust his hand through the gashes, draw out the entrails, cut a palm's length from one, and throw it on the embers. Then he would gash an arm three times, the second cut on the inside of the. elbow, and would sever the limb. A little later he would begin to rejoin it, and the touch of his hands would instantly heal the wounds.
Read the Wiki Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvar_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_Cabeza_de_Vaca
And, should you be stuck finding the book read it online here: https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Journey_of_Alvar_Nu%C3%B1ez_Cabeza_de_Va/RMQRAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover or here: http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/cdv/rel.htm
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The Wolfpack
The Wolfpack is a 2015 documentary that tells the story of six brothers and a sister whose father confined them inside of their 4-bedroom, New York City apartment for almost all of their lives.
Read the Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolfpack
Not a great documentary, but an interesting one, by virtue of it's subjects.
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In line for a mediocre burger
I'm in line for a mediocre burger. Not a small line, a pretty big line, maybe 30 people.
This place - it's been "Opening Soon" in town for the past 4 months. Last year they had one of those food trucks, sold burgers, fries, poutine, and Stormy was all over it, telling me all about it, I had to go, best burgers ever, etc, etc. Then this year, they gave up the truck, they were popular enough I guess, and now they have a more permanent location.
So finally, after months of false starts they're finally open, 6 hours a day, 4 days a week, and I'm waiting here in line with everybody else to see what all the fuss is about.
Meh. 30 minutes in line. I go all in on the burger - triple deluxe, maybe $8.00, and the large poutine, $12.00, and - sincerely - none of it's a big deal. Like mediocre. Expensive even, for what you're getting. A&W, Even McDonalds do it - or some version of it - better and cheaper. And while I'm happy to support a lousy independent over a lousier multinational - I see no reason for this to be lousy.
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Patatap
I spent way too much time here today. Way-cool.
Link: https://www.patatap.com/
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