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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Carol Cole <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Christopher, you disappoint me. i frequently have that effect, on woemen. >How can you say coffee is just a recreational drug, when we all know that caffeine is one of the basic food groups, right up there with chocolate! yes, surely, but the 1.5-Cameral Middlevils didn't know that. they didn't even know about chocolate, not being able to steal it from the Arabs. the real question, as i said, is : How could something so amazingly useful (as a pain reliever, as well as a recreational pharmaceutical) as opium have been brought to the West (as the English cloister capitals seem to prove) and then, somehow, forgotten? even for the English, that's Dropping the Ball, Spacing Out, Big Time, it seems to me. puts me in mind of an historical study of the various joints used in carpentry, from the 13th to the 18th centuries. the fellow (Cecil Hewitt) claimed to have been able to date the "evolution" of particular joint types through the centuries and to have found that most of them went through a period of evolutionary improvements, then reached a kind of peak --the "ideal" joint of its type-- and then, curiously, continued to change, but "devolved", actually becomming *less* efficient (used/wasted more wood and space, was less strong, etc.). i find that story to be, somehow, a very, very interesting paradigm. > Personally, I'm a diet coke woman, but the principle is the same :) yes, the principle being that i frequently have that effect, on woemen. having used coke myself as both a medicine and as a recreational pharmaceutical, i can feel your pain, however. best, c "What about the older ones [Indians] ?" "Well, we can't seem to cure them of the idea that our Everyday Life is only an Illusion, behind which is the Reality of Dreams" --Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo" http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083946 ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html