Ch 6

Seriously, it really does blow my mind how big of a deal salt was back in the day. I find it so ridiculous that we use it everyday for seasoning, and dont even think about it. We put it our roads in the winter, too. Something we find so ordinary and typical was all the rage and the talk of the town at one point. Like many other fellow bloggers, I definitely thought of gas prices and compared it to salt. I guess it just helps us understand how important salt was. Gas is definitely our modern day salt. I also think its cool that refridgerators sort of replaced salt in way. I kept forgetting that they didnt have fridges back then, which is obviously very silly of me. No electricity=no fridge, duh :). I think its cool that just by completely covering an item of meat in salt makes it last forever. I was very glad to read that ham was finally becoming popular. I love ham! and I find it hard to believe that before this time pork was considered bad to eat. So how about that cheese? I really do love cheese, but I guess before this chapter of Salt I never really considered how it was made. Ive never been brave enough to try blue cheese, and its the only kind of aged cheese I know of. Hopefully when I go to Greece and Italy this summer I'll be able to try some. Even if I dont like it that much, at least I'll be able to say I tried it. I'll admit, when I started reading this book I was definitely a little skeptical, but overall I liked it. It was a pretty good book and well written. It was easy to understand, and I actually learned a lot. It really made me think how some of the everyday things that we use could have been sacred or something a way long time ago. Cool book, nice pick :)

Ch 5

I never know how to start these blogs...
Do you think you could swim in a salt pond? Would it be similar to an ocean, or would there be way more salt? And also, didn't they notice that there was salt in the ocean back then?..woah. Maybe they did and I'm just too slow to realize it.. Anyways, I didn't really find too many interesting things in this chapter. I like the word Venetian, though. They were pretty smart people, by getting involved with the salt trade. I didn't really get what they were talking about, but it seemed that they knew what they were doing 99% of the time. I love pasta and macaroni, so reading about that was pretty cool. Its strange that Marco Polo wrote about food a lot, and not the great wall of China or stuff like that. I would probably choose food over The Great Wall, too, though. They shouldnt have accused him of not visiting those countries. Maybe the man just liked food! This chapter wasn't that long or exciting, so, moving on..

Ch 4

In this chapter I realized how serious everyone was about their salt prices. It definitely reminds me of today's gas prices. Its always the talk of the town and someone is always complaining about it. Also, people traveled a long way just to get there salt. I can buy salt within five miles of my house. I never really considered that people would have special trails like "Salt Road" dedicated to trading salt. I guess salt sure has come a long way. Its pretty cool that they had "salad" or whatever, but I would say its quite different from today's salad. I dont think I've ever put salt on my salad, and I dont think I know anyone who puts it on theirs either. If I've been eating presalted salad all these years without knowing it, I'll be a little upset. Can you be allergic to salt? That would really suck. I hate green olives, so I think that whoever decided to salt them so that they could be edible is an awful person. My family has been trying to get me to like them for as long as I can remember. I don't like them and I never will. Garum, seriously? Why would anyone ever ever ever in a million years eat that? If the smells not enough to get you, the fact that its actually rotten fish should ring a bell in your head that maybe its not the greatest tasting stuff in the world. The guy that finally banned it from all recipes was a genius. I would probably never eat it if I lived back then. Its made in a completely disgusting way, and I don't even like fresh fish, let alone rotten fish.

Ch 3.

I don't understand how everyone finds it so normal to dig up preserved bodies. I would probably be really creeped out if I dug up a person. I think its cool, though, how well preserved they are. I don't really know what a preserved person looks like, though. I'm gonna guess that they look like the people on display at the bodies exhibit, which in that case is not very attractive. Its pretty dang cool that the colors of the peoples clothes stayed normal, even though I am pretty sure that its not important and doesn't really matter. I think celts are probably the coolest people to walk the earth, and if I could go back in time, I would definitely be them. The whole battling naked thing is awesome, but sort of weird. It doesn't really make sense, because you think people would want to cover their whole bodies, let alone the sensitive parts..., for protection. Thats why they have things such as body armour and stuff, its just strange. Even if they didn't wear clothes in battle, they were still pretty smart for their time. I definitely didn't know that iron could be corroded my salt. Celts also sort of remind me of hippies, because they really didn't have a specific region that they were from. I think thats pretty cool. I like hippies, too, so I would definitely be a Celt. Yep, this book convinced me.

i keep forgetting to blog, dont give up hope on me, yet! i plan to blog later in the wee hours of the night. maybe i'll even wear a cloak, doesnt that just seem like something megan would do :)

SALLLLT! ch 2

I actually found chapter two to be much more exciting. i apologize that i cannot capitalize at all, its a bad habit i have. anyways, i think i enjoyed this section more because it was more about egyptian and pheonician lifestyles. i really like egyptian culture, for some strange reason. i also like that iy really only talked about salt in reference to food. anyways, at least this chapter didnt make me want to burn the entire book. i think that we are being forced to read this because even though it seems to really be about salt, i think its one of those tricky things teachers do. you see, the book uses salt sort of as like a time line, but it is also teaching us other things. like for example: how to mummify. they are sneaking in knowledge on us without us even knowing. its pretty cool, and i sort of like it. if i was a teacher i would do the same thing, kudos. i laughed out loud at the part where the mummified bodies were charged as being salted fish. i dont know why but i just find that to be very humurous. also, how exactly would you go about building a house out of salt. i dont really get it, doesnt salt dissolve in water? is this like a special kind of salt that is water resistant? also, i would always be tempted to lick my house.

i like good food, so i am very happy that with the use of salt good food was discovered. i would be a very sad woman if there was no such thing as raised bread. i think the way that they "mine" salt is sort of ridiculous in the sahara. they still use camels! can't anyone get them some technology over there! i would not like to be the person to find the preserved bodies in the desert. i think i'll try to avoid dying in the desert because i really dont want my body being preserved for a really long time and then having people study me. can you still request to be mummified? i sort of want to be, for some reason. i dont even believe in the after life, i just want to give my organs to my friends. also i would really feel like crap if i was one of those slaves that got traded for salt. i mean cmon, how bad would that make you feel, if i traded you for salt?! it also blows my mind that salt was just about as valuable as gold, its ridiculous. you can go to any grocery store and buy salt now, but back then you had to pay ridiculous amounts of money and so on just to get a little bit of salt. interesting. well, chapter two wasnt so bad, so maybe chapter three will be even better.

you've been blog'd! and yeah, im like ashton kutcher! :)

OMG salt

So, this was an interesting chapter. I don't really get why salt is so fascinating to the Chinese. I guess its cool that they use it in a bunch of different things, but I suppose this is only the first chapter, so I dont really know much. Also, I definitely would never think that if i was in a desert dying to take salt and soy sauce with me, so I did find that part to be pretty interesting. That would probably be last on my list of things to bring. I enjoyed reading more about the people who discovered salt than the actualy discovery of it, but I really do just like learning about people. It might not have that much to do with the book. I think its cool that salt is in iron. I think you should be able to taste the salt in iron. That would be pretty hardcore. I also like that those people fought over the control of the salt lake, just because now salt lakes really aren't fought over at all. I rememeber I went to Death Valley with my family once and there was like 2 cm of water in this one "lake" and there was a whole story about how people would always try to get their donkeys to drink the water and they wouldnt, which is how they found out it was salt water. I think its strange I remember that. I still have hope for this book and hope it grabs my interest soon. Well, thats about all I have to say ;)
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