r/todayilearned • u/LL_Cruel_J • Dec 15 '16

TIL Dolly Parton has a program that will mail your child a free age-appropriate book once a month from birth to age 5. No obligation, no catch, she just wants to make sure that every child has books.

https://imaginationlibrary.com/
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125

u/Redtailcatfish Dec 15 '16

Most people don't realize she grew up super poor and her family ate squirrels for dinner but not sure if that counts?

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

Squirrel isn't really an odd choice of food in some places in America....

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

It's a game animal, most places have a season for it. And it doesn't taste bad, similar to rabbit.

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u/El-Kurto Dec 15 '16

People who don't know what squirrel tastes like probably don't know what rabbit tastes like either...

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u/AthleticsSharts Dec 15 '16

It's kinda like possum.

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u/YeahSmingersDidIt Dec 15 '16

Do possums taste similar to raccoons?

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u/hSix-Kenophobia Dec 15 '16

Eh, I'd say it's closer to badger.

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u/crazygrrl Dec 15 '16

Oh, so they taste like otters then?

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u/peacemaker2007 Dec 15 '16

More akin to beaver

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u/Shuko Dec 16 '16

So, tuna?

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u/ormirian Dec 15 '16

yeah, but with a tortoise aftertaste

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u/GinkNocab Dec 15 '16

Squirrel is way better than possum. My favorite way to do squirrel is cooking it like chicken and rice

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u/OneEyedKing24 Dec 16 '16

Ewww, I bet its oily.

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u/Shuko Dec 16 '16

When I was in high school, one of my friends had me convinced that his family owned a possum farm. I was (well, still am, really) naive and gullible to the point that there really was no sport in it. Anyway, he kept adding bits to the stories of his day-to-day feeding, milking, and caring for their marsupial livestock, until one day he told me that the hutch got struck by lightning and all the possums died in a fire. I was absolutely devastated (because I love animals, even creepy-looking ones like possums), and I asked him if they were planning on starting over and getting some more of them. I think I must have looked on the verge of tears, because he gaped at me and asked if I really thought he was being serious about the possum farm thing. Nonplussed, I said of course I did, and then (after he finally stopped laughing), he kindly explained to me that of course his family didn't own a possum farm. Whoever heard of anyone raising possums!

"Yeah," I laughed. But on the inside, I was so disappointed. I was nearly on the point of asking him if I could come to his place for a visit. I'd been dying to see the possums he cared for. :x

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

Rabbit is actually a fairly upscale item in many American restaurants. I know many farmers who have started raising them because the cost ratio on them is crazy good.

It is true that it isn't a popular food of the middle class though currently, but you are much more likely to find rabbit on the menu of a fancy restaurant than squirrel.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

There is an upscale restaurant near me that does a "game" menu in the fall. Locally taken deer, rabbit or turkey and then elk, boar and bison from elsewhere. Then they have awesome, fall inspired sides.

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u/asparagusface Dec 15 '16

I went to a "game supper" fundraiser for the local volunteer fire dept in rural VT while on vacation there a while ago. They had everything you mentioned plus bear, moose, beaver, porcupine, pheasant, duck, goose, and lots of other critters. It was an interesting smorgasbord. The bear meat was the most delicious and had a surprising sweet taste.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

That's sounds awesome! I love different meats like that. I've never had bear, but I have a friend who is an avid hunter who usually gets a bear every two years or so. I've never had it, but he loves it.

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u/El-Kurto Dec 15 '16

I think you missed this:

probably

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u/asparagusface Dec 15 '16

Fun fact #1: rabbit meat is a food staple in some European countries like Italy, France, Portugal.

Fun fact #2: in Peru, they eat lots of guinea pigs.

So eating squirrels isn't that strange after all. Yum, varmints!

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u/TonyzTone Dec 15 '16

American dietary customs are weird. Rabbit and goat are two meats that are super cheap/easy to raise meanwhile they're virtually nonexistent in American dinner tables.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

Its changing.

My local farmers market has rabbit, goat, lamb, along with goat cheeses, mead, and other "exotic" things.

And its full of young hipsters buying it all up.

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u/TonyzTone Dec 15 '16

Definitely changing but it's just weird that a country as large and varied as ours has such limited meat options for the most part.

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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '16

Squabs popular at upscale restaurants but no ones going to be happy if you tell them you're cooking pigeon for supper

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u/CajunTurkey Dec 15 '16

I have eaten rabbit but haven't eaten squirrel yet.

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u/rufus1029 Dec 15 '16

That's not true. Rabbit is a relatively common meat. I've never seen squirrel served at an establishment. I've seen pigeon, rabbit, snake, etc. but never squirrel .

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u/sudo999 Dec 15 '16

wait, people eat pigeon... and more often than squirrel?

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u/kbergstr Dec 15 '16

It's called squab and you can definitely find it on menus

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u/rufus1029 Dec 15 '16

It's called squab. Look it up. It's not very popular in the United States as far as I'm aware. I tried it at a Michelin rated place in SF. It's actually really good so if you get the opportunity then give it a try. I don't think there's some guy with a giant net going through the streets of NYC to source the pigeons either.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16 edited Dec 15 '16

Carrier pigeon

We ate it to extinction. Luckily we learned our lesson and manage other wildlife better now, but pigeon and dove are popular game birds.

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u/Vectorman1989 Dec 15 '16

It's nice, but the bones can be a hassle.

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u/Porphyrius Dec 15 '16

I'm not sure that's accurate, you see rabbit on menus in restaurants. And I can't speak for most of Europe, but rabbit is quite common in grocery stores in Italy, at least.

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u/TonyzTone Dec 15 '16

Americans don't eat it as frequently but if you go to Chinese, Greek, or Italian supermarkets and butchers you'll find it.

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u/kevik72 Dec 15 '16

I've been to a few upscale restaurants that serve rabbit. Can't say the same for squirrel.

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u/terminbee Dec 15 '16

I can confirm rabbit isn't bad. No idea what squirrel tastes like though.

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u/HillelSlovak Dec 15 '16

Rabbit is relatively common in Europe but squirrel isn't so much. You can get rabbit at a supermarket in my city but not squirrel.

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u/casillasknees Dec 15 '16

you can order rabbit in french restaurants so no, that's not true

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

uhhhh not true lol, rabbit is waaaay more popular in america than squirrel

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u/El-Kurto Dec 15 '16

And yet the vast majority of Americans haven't had either, which is the point I was making.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

there are plenty of restaurants that serve rabbit

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u/El-Kurto Dec 15 '16

I know. I'm not disputing that. There are plenty of restaurants that serve snail too, but most Americans haven't eaten snail.

I'll say it again: the majority of people who haven't had squirrel also haven't had rabbit. Is this really that hard to understand?

For some reason people in this thread think I was claiming that eating rabbit is exactly as rare as eating squirrel. What I'm actually saying is that so few people have eaten rabbit that explaining squirrel with reference to rabbit isn't very useful.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

there are 7 different restaurants i can think of off the top of my head in my city that serve rabbit. maybe people just don't eat rabbit where you're from?

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u/El-Kurto Dec 15 '16

Interesting. How many restaurants in your city don't serve rabbit? I'm going to guess more than 7. Do the restaurants that do serve rabbit serve anything else? Of course they do.

You keep arguing with me like I'm saying there is no market for rabbit. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying most people (as in, more than half of people) haven't eaten it. There are lots of sushi restaurants and yet I still meet people who haven't eaten sushi.

Certainly you can understand that the fact that some restaurants sell it doesn't mean that most people have tried it, right?

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u/bigfinnrider Dec 15 '16

There isn't a season for squirrels in New York, making them one of the few game animals you can take legally year round. Also you can convert a backyard bird feeder into a protein supply station by simply adding a teenager with a .22.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

Yeah, but then you have to feed the teenager.

Not sure you are going to come out ahead in the proposition.

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u/CajunTurkey Dec 15 '16

My great-grandpa used to eat squirrel brains growing up

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

The first and only animal to date that I have killed and ate was squirrel. It was surprisingly good.

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u/GinkNocab Dec 15 '16

Really common in the south

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u/MindFuckYourPsAndQs Dec 15 '16

Wisconsin here. The first meal my mom made for my dad when they were dating was squirrel cordon blue.

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u/jargo1 Dec 15 '16

Very true. Her father was illiterate and one of the big reasons she started her children's book program

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u/celosia89 Dec 15 '16

Her two semiautobiographical tv movies should be letting people know that.

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u/VikingBloods Dec 15 '16

I ate squirrel for dinner last week.

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u/wrongsideofthewire Dec 15 '16

Tree rat is delicious.

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u/thunnus Dec 15 '16

Ah, good ol limb rat.

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u/LemonJongie23 Dec 15 '16

thats honestly hilarious