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founding

I love this. As an upstate NY native, I'm obsessed with the maple syrup heist of 2011-2012: https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/canada/quebec/articles/the-unusual-story-behind-the-great-canadian-maple-syrup-heist/

The Dirty Money episode money on it is great.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

The one that comes to mind is about disgusting food, not good food, but those children whose parents never let them out of the house, the Turpins... their parents used to buy pies and donuts and not allow the children to eat them, and meanwhile, the food would sit on the kitchen counter and get moldy. Those kids ate barely anything. One of them reported that some days, all she ate was ice or ketchup. When they were finally rescued, all they talked about was food. It's so horrifying.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

I nominate Mama Stamberg’s cranberry relish. For years, YEARS, NPR let Susan Stamberg repeat her mother-in-law’s recipe which incredulously includes - wait for it - HORSE RADISH. For all that is holy - no. Apparently, either you love this recipe or hate it but I, for one, will always skip it.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

Two books I listened to lately that deal with poisonings or have sections on poisonings are Emma Southon's A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which was an interesting read on how murder/manslaughter/crime was looked at in ancient Rome, and The Royal Art of Poison by Eleanor Herman. The latter has sections on how the royals viewed the threat of poison and a separate set of chapters about deaths that were seen or rumoured to be poisonings and what the most likely cause of death was. Enjoyed both of them.

The latest American Shadows podcast had a section on nutrition experiments run by Quaker Oats and MIT on boys in the Fernald State School, which also brings to mind the nutrition experiments in Treaty 9 territory and across Canada in the Indian Residential Schools in the 1940s and 50s. Much, much more depressing.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

If you haven't found your way to it yet, Radiolab did a great episode about Mary Mallon.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

My grandfather used to run a bar in Wilkes-Barre (PA) and he implied that the reason he closed it had to do with the Russian mob. Sadly, he’s no longer alive for me to ask.

Also, I used to work for the PA Liquor Board and part of my job was reading citations for minors and visibly intoxicated patron violations. My favorite one ever was where the VIP was the owner of the bar and he sent his eight-year-old grandson behind the bar to get him a beer. No word on whether the kid knew how to run the tap or if it was a bottle.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

Immediately reminds me of the case of Harriet Staunton, written up in Elizabeth Jenkins' terrific novel Harriet, starved to death by her ratbag husband's family. Chilling stuff.

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founding
Nov 25, 2021Liked by Best Evidence

For me, Tommy Thompson comes through with those poisoned eclairs (or were they?) in Blood & Money. I stayed away from eclairs for years after reading that book. I also will admit that I ordered my holiday feast from Eatzi’s this year instead of cooking it myself, and there are kernels of corn in the sausage stuffing. That’s pretty much a crime to me. Happy Thanksgiving for those of you celebrating.

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