8 ms·

That article is .. devoid of new information. It claims that we don't eat swans (maybe? probably? I certainly never did.) but fails to provide even a hint of an

That article is .. devoid of new information. It claims that we don't eat swans (maybe? probably? I certainly never did.) but fails to provide even a hint of an answer. Unless I miss a hidden link for a page 2 or 3 that is a very long "So we don't eat a big bird, think about it", which is .. thought provoking if you're feeling nice, lacking content if you're not. Jumping between vastly different regions doesn't help either ("Swans are the property of the crown in the UK, but a pest in Michigan." What??).

deleted 12y ago
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dang 12y ago
Perhaps not new to you, but I learned much from the article. I didn't know that swans are crown property in England [1], that only the royal family and the fellows of St. John’s College of Cambridge (!) are allowed to eat them, or that they have become pests in Michigan (which of course is relevant; the post is not about a region, but about swans). I didn't even realize that there was a taboo against eating swans, though it seems obvious now. 1. The article contains an interesting link to "An Act Concerning Swans" (1482): http://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/images/an%20act%20concerning%20swans.jpg http://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/images/an%20act%20concern...
- darklajid 12y ago
  Hey. I certainly don't want to ruin that article for you. For me (German, haven't left the country except for random vacations to France, NL, CH, IT or something and a year in IL) that was well-known. I've been in the UK once, in London, for two days. Guess that's a matter of which trivia based games you play or something.. ;-) Michigan: No idea about that, that WAS news to me. But the article is about "Why don't we eat swans" and the Michigan part is really a bad example. So ... it's a pest? No hunting season though? And no explanation? Frankly, I like swans. I regularly met and fed a couple of swans in Cologne in Germany here, checking on the young ones if the season was right. I'd love to eat them though. The article, for me at least, fails to deliver at least a hint of an answer to the question it proposed. That's just a bad format for me. If your main subject is a question, you need to at least try to answer it (and "yeah, they might be cute" isn't it).
  - jeffbr13 12y ago
    Ducks, also, are both friendly and delicious.
    - prawn 12y ago
      And cute. Yet many of us (myself included) quite happily eat them.
  - calibwam 12y ago
    What I got from it, while not a conclusive answer, was that because of the historical ban for anyone but the royal to eat swan, there is no tradition anywhere in the western world for it. Also people don't like to eat "cute" animals, like seals or squirrels. And lastly, when something is classified as a pest, people don't want to think of it on their dining room table. While the article doesn't explicitly say the exact reason why, I think these were the main points. So I guess that is badly formatting on the article writers side.
    - darklajid 12y ago
      But the premise is already weird. Who is "We" as in "Why don't we eat swans"? And who considers swans 'cute'? I mean, I consider cats cute, lots of people consider dogs cute - and both animals are eaten in this world. Better example: Horses are cherished as companions and pets for some people and I _regularly_ like to eat them. There's even a dish local to the Rhine area in Germany [1] that (used to, it is replaced by beef quite often by now) is based on horse meat. People tend to love dolphins. Asian cultures eat them. "They are cute" is not an argument here. That might explain a bias, but not why there's (according to the article) no swan to be found on any menu? 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerbraten http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerbraten
      - dalke 12y ago
        "We" would presumably be the types of people who read the magazine. According to the about, that would be: "window-herb growers, career farmers, people who have chickens, people who want to have chickens and anyone who wants to know more about how food reaches their plate" and given the staff members are all US oriented, it's most likely assuming a US readership and US food culture. Thus we, who are random fly-by strangers to the magazine, shouldn't really criticize harshly when they don't take an unexpected audience into account.
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  There was also an interesting link about why we should consider eating invasive (non-native) species. Personally I think the Canadian Geese around Oracle HQ in Redwood City could use a good thinning.
  - suyash 12y ago
    Personally I think the Canadian Geese around Oracle HQ in Redwood City could use a good thinning. - Why? You don't like animals chilling out in a protected area.
    - ChuckMcM 12y ago
      No, because they cause economic harm. Both in damage to aircraft coming into and out of San Mateo airport, damage to cars which are involved in goose related accidents, damage to property in the form of plant destruction and defecation. Without natural predators they have become a nuisance.
      - sjwright 12y ago
        Much like kangaroos in rural Australia. With fewer predators and enormous amounts of native bushland cleared for farming, they have multiplied to the point that they've become a pest. Fortunately, the meat is pretty tasty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat
        seanmcdirmid 12y ago
        I tried kangaroo in Switzerland the last time I visited EPFL; the cafeterias there serve all sorts of weird stuff, like horse... I didn't like it, it tasted a lot like rabbit to me, and sourness in a meat is just weird to me.
        eshvk 12y ago
        > I didn't like it, it tasted a lot like rabbit to me, and sourness in a meat is just weird to me. Odd. I have had both Rabbit and Kangaroo. Both were lean flavorful, the Kangaroo more close to a lean beef than anything. But I wouldn't associate "sour" with both meats. Could you have sampled a bad batch?
- christudor 12y ago
  There once was a man from St John's Who coveted one of the swans, "Oh no" said the Porter, Please take my daughter, The swans are reserved for the dons.
gweinberg 12y ago
I felt the same way. It asks "why don't we eat swans any more?" but as far as I can tell in the US we never did, and in fact the closest thing to an answer is just that we never got in the habit. I get the impression the excess swan problem in Michigan is a recent thing, probably a result of a decline of some swaniferous predator.
- jqm 12y ago
  LOL@swaniferous predator. Maybe they could introduce cold hardy alligators to Michigan? But then there would be two problems....
- qbrass 12y ago
  People buy them as a pond decoration, then turn them loose when they become aggressive as adults.
- taejo 12y ago
  swaniferous (swan-bearing) =/= swanivorous (swan-eating).
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  Ironic: HN folks quibbling about a bad article title.
- lotsofcows 12y ago
  Heaven forfend the article could be addressed to mankind! Obviously it was addressed to USAians and was given an odd title by mistake. That's definitely the intuitive, obvious, straight-forward possiblity.
Zigurd 12y ago
As long as it doesn't mention domestic surveillance or the iffy state of an economy propped up on QE, it's a perfectly cromulent HN topic.
ebbv 12y ago
Yep, this article is a completely content free fluff piece which can be summarized thusly: "We don't eat swans. They are a pest in michigan. Why don't people eat swan?" That is not an article it's something you'd say at a party while drunk and everyone would look at you funny.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

dang 12y ago

Perhaps not new to you, but I learned much from the article. I didn't know that swans are crown property in England [1], that only the royal family and the fellows of St. John’s College of Cambridge (!) are allowed to eat them, or that they have become pests in Michigan (which of course is relevant; the post is not about a region, but about swans). I didn't even realize that there was a taboo against eating swans, though it seems obvious now. 1. The article contains an interesting link to "An Act Concerning Swans" (1482): http://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/images/an%20act%20concerning%20swans.jpg http://www.theswansanctuary.org.uk/images/an%20act%20concern...

darklajid 12y ago
Hey. I certainly don't want to ruin that article for you. For me (German, haven't left the country except for random vacations to France, NL, CH, IT or something and a year in IL) that was well-known. I've been in the UK once, in London, for two days. Guess that's a matter of which trivia based games you play or something.. ;-) Michigan: No idea about that, that WAS news to me. But the article is about "Why don't we eat swans" and the Michigan part is really a bad example. So ... it's a pest? No hunting season though? And no explanation? Frankly, I like swans. I regularly met and fed a couple of swans in Cologne in Germany here, checking on the young ones if the season was right. I'd love to eat them though. The article, for me at least, fails to deliver at least a hint of an answer to the question it proposed. That's just a bad format for me. If your main subject is a question, you need to at least try to answer it (and "yeah, they might be cute" isn't it).
- jeffbr13 12y ago
  Ducks, also, are both friendly and delicious.
  - prawn 12y ago
    And cute. Yet many of us (myself included) quite happily eat them.
- calibwam 12y ago
  What I got from it, while not a conclusive answer, was that because of the historical ban for anyone but the royal to eat swan, there is no tradition anywhere in the western world for it. Also people don't like to eat "cute" animals, like seals or squirrels. And lastly, when something is classified as a pest, people don't want to think of it on their dining room table. While the article doesn't explicitly say the exact reason why, I think these were the main points. So I guess that is badly formatting on the article writers side.
  - darklajid 12y ago
    But the premise is already weird. Who is "We" as in "Why don't we eat swans"? And who considers swans 'cute'? I mean, I consider cats cute, lots of people consider dogs cute - and both animals are eaten in this world. Better example: Horses are cherished as companions and pets for some people and I _regularly_ like to eat them. There's even a dish local to the Rhine area in Germany [1] that (used to, it is replaced by beef quite often by now) is based on horse meat. People tend to love dolphins. Asian cultures eat them. "They are cute" is not an argument here. That might explain a bias, but not why there's (according to the article) no swan to be found on any menu? 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerbraten http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerbraten
    - dalke 12y ago
      "We" would presumably be the types of people who read the magazine. According to the about, that would be: "window-herb growers, career farmers, people who have chickens, people who want to have chickens and anyone who wants to know more about how food reaches their plate" and given the staff members are all US oriented, it's most likely assuming a US readership and US food culture. Thus we, who are random fly-by strangers to the magazine, shouldn't really criticize harshly when they don't take an unexpected audience into account.
ChuckMcM 12y ago
There was also an interesting link about why we should consider eating invasive (non-native) species. Personally I think the Canadian Geese around Oracle HQ in Redwood City could use a good thinning.
- suyash 12y ago
  Personally I think the Canadian Geese around Oracle HQ in Redwood City could use a good thinning. - Why? You don't like animals chilling out in a protected area.
  - ChuckMcM 12y ago
    No, because they cause economic harm. Both in damage to aircraft coming into and out of San Mateo airport, damage to cars which are involved in goose related accidents, damage to property in the form of plant destruction and defecation. Without natural predators they have become a nuisance.
    - sjwright 12y ago
      Much like kangaroos in rural Australia. With fewer predators and enormous amounts of native bushland cleared for farming, they have multiplied to the point that they've become a pest. Fortunately, the meat is pretty tasty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_meat
      - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
        I tried kangaroo in Switzerland the last time I visited EPFL; the cafeterias there serve all sorts of weird stuff, like horse... I didn't like it, it tasted a lot like rabbit to me, and sourness in a meat is just weird to me.
        eshvk 12y ago
        > I didn't like it, it tasted a lot like rabbit to me, and sourness in a meat is just weird to me. Odd. I have had both Rabbit and Kangaroo. Both were lean flavorful, the Kangaroo more close to a lean beef than anything. But I wouldn't associate "sour" with both meats. Could you have sampled a bad batch?
christudor 12y ago
There once was a man from St John's Who coveted one of the swans, "Oh no" said the Porter, Please take my daughter, The swans are reserved for the dons.

gweinberg 12y ago

I felt the same way. It asks "why don't we eat swans any more?" but as far as I can tell in the US we never did, and in fact the closest thing to an answer is just that we never got in the habit. I get the impression the excess swan problem in Michigan is a recent thing, probably a result of a decline of some swaniferous predator.

jqm 12y ago
LOL@swaniferous predator. Maybe they could introduce cold hardy alligators to Michigan? But then there would be two problems....
qbrass 12y ago
People buy them as a pond decoration, then turn them loose when they become aggressive as adults.
taejo 12y ago
swaniferous (swan-bearing) =/= swanivorous (swan-eating).
JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Ironic: HN folks quibbling about a bad article title.
lotsofcows 12y ago
Heaven forfend the article could be addressed to mankind! Obviously it was addressed to USAians and was given an odd title by mistake. That's definitely the intuitive, obvious, straight-forward possiblity.

Zigurd 12y ago

As long as it doesn't mention domestic surveillance or the iffy state of an economy propped up on QE, it's a perfectly cromulent HN topic.

ebbv 12y ago

Yep, this article is a completely content free fluff piece which can be summarized thusly: "We don't eat swans. They are a pest in michigan. Why don't people eat swan?" That is not an article it's something you'd say at a party while drunk and everyone would look at you funny.