Feb 19th, 2017: Golden Ticket

[monster]

In December 2016, Graham Short, an artist who engraves tiny images on pinheads, defaced four of the new UK £5 notes with a miniature portrait of Jane Austen and a unique quote. Then spent one in each home nation: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Whilst defacing currency is a crime, his last work -a portrait of the queen on a pinhead, raised £100,000, so it is estimated that each of these is worth up to £50,000. The one spent in a pie shop in England is still missing.

The banknotes have the following serial numbers and quotes:
◾AM32 885551: "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more," from the Austen novel, Emma
◾AM32 885552: "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love," from Pride and Prejudice
◾AM32 885553: "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of," from the Austen novel, Mansfield Park
◾AM32 885554: "I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good," from Pride and Prejudice

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-39015115

[monster]

I kind of hope a vegan finds it to see how they handle that moral dilemma....

[xoxoxoBruce]

I hope Dana finds it.
Very cool idea, and well executed. I don't see how the government could be pissy about it but you never know.

I don't get the vegan reference, because he spent it in a pie shop?



By the way, Beest should like this.

[monster]

The new £5 notes contain animal fat I was about to post a link to an article about that when the stupid computer crashed again

[monster]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...drawing-anger/

[xoxoxoBruce]

Oh, that's pretty stupid, as is the whole vegan bullshit.

[Snakeadelic]

While I'm sure there are many lovely individuals in the vegan world, I've never met them. I meet the kind of vegans who should be tied to their chairs and forced to read some things.

http://tinyurl.com/lz5ma4u
http://tinyurl.com/6bsbsvo (wonder if there's a vegan menu)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37034619

I hope the people who find those altered bills deserve them

Just like I hope the story about the Misha Collins bills is true...some huge Supernatural fan apparently wrote Are You Misha Collins? on a bunch of either fives or ones, across the top in small lettering...and a pic of Collins holding one up in a coffee shop appears to show handwriting matching the original post. (Not to mention that Jensen Ackles from the same show has now apparently TWICE walked into businesses and discovered fan employees had used Skittles to make portraits of him! I checked the pics and the colors & arrangements are different, and there's a photo set out there of his face when he found the first in a coffee shop.)

[Snakeadelic]

Also, having worked with tallow (I still hate the smell of rendering suet) when my mom used to hand-make soap, I can't imagine what they had to treat it with to keep it from spoiling!

Back in the days when the British Empire included India, riots were rumored to have been sparked when troops were told that the waterproofing on the packaging of their rifle ammo was a combination of beef (offensive to Hindus) and pork (offensive to another group, maybe Muslims, that supplied MANY soldiers to the British) fat.

As for the defacement of currency with things like these micro-etchings, that doesn't perturb me all too much. I probably wouldn't deface anything bigger than $5, but that's because I'm broke all the time.

Read another interesting little money-related blip the other day. A school kid in Texas tried to buy lunch with an old (pre-reissue) $2 and it failed the counterfeit pen test. All pre-reissue $2 bills will fail, it turns out. They had to call the grandmother who gave her the money to verify its origin! The article's on Forbes, so probably not TOO fake...

[footfootfoot]

They do something with lard nowadays that allows it to be shelf stable for a couple of years.

[monster]

I think it's funny that when we moved here, people thought it was odd Brits used suet to bake with sometimes (although we use a vegetarian version) ....suet is only for bird food. Now Beef tallow, duck fat and some other animal fat I can't remember off the top of my head bre the "in" luxury items in the cooking oil section of my store

[xoxoxoBruce]

Vegetable suet is available in supermarkets in the United Kingdom, made from fat such as palm oil combined with wheat flour (Atora/Tesco) or rice flour (Morrisons). It resembles shredded beef suet, and is used as a vegetarian substitute in recipes, but with slightly different results from animal suet.

On Amazon...
Atora Shredded Vegetable Suet 200gr (7.05ozs) $13.48
Atora Light Shredded Vegetable Suet 200gr (7.05ozs) $6.33

[monster]

yes, Atora is the brand we use. I have my MIL bring it periodically tho, ain't payin' those kind of prices (it's like a couple of quid in store, tops). Mostly I use it for the Christmas pudding and mincemeat

[BigV]

just curious, is there meat in mincemeat? And if so, why bother with vegan suet in animal mincemeat?

[monster]

Originally Posted by BigV

just curious, is there meat in mincemeat? And if so, why bother with vegan suet in animal mincemeat?

yes and no.....


1) there used to be but isn't any more
2) the term meat was used to refer to food in general, not just that gained from animals -e.g. the meat from nuts. mincemeat just meant minced food when the term was coined.

I will try to find the link to the research I did about this, but basically these days it's just dried fruit (raisind, golden raisins, currants), dried mixed citrus peal, citrus juice and fresh peel, spices, flour, egg, suet, sugar brandy.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, used to be meat, suet and a lot of booze, but now it's dried fruit and nuts. My Aunt used to make pies every holiday, Mincemeat, along with apple, and pumpkin or Boston Creme. My mother would ask, do you want apple, pumpkin, or mincemeat, the answer was yes.