Sunday, September 20, 2009

Pain as MSG? A BlogMeet Thought.

It seems to be a common practice among despots to have their prisoners tortured while they're feasting (the despots that is). Vlad Tepes (the historical Dracula) and the Mogul Emperor Jahangir are two examples of this behavior. For some time now I've wondered why they did this. Were they so busy that they could find little time during the day and thus had to combine both eating and torture? Or did the act of torture that is the pain of the tortured add flavor to the food? I may explore this today when I attend the Indy BlogMeet. I'll take a bite of my food and note its flavor. Then I'll ask someone like Joanna to punch someone. Then I'll take another bite of my food and see if it tastes better. I'll post the results here.

5 comments:

Turk Turon said...

Your experiment will need a control subject. Have Joanna swing and miss at the control subject.

Sorry I can't be there this time. Stuck in D.C.

Joanna said...

Sorry, man. I can't make it to this one. Try me again next week ...

Roberta X said...

Um, isnt this sort of a...disincentive?

Shermlock Shomes said...

Only a disincentive for the punchee. ;)

Shermlock Shomes said...

Turk:

Good point. Witnessing Joanna take a swing at someone might release endorphins that would cause the illusion that the food tastes better.

Still a win, though! ;)