PHHH #1227.9 November 2, 2008 Hare: OuiPi Hounds: HYP, Cliffie, Hand Solo, Delicate Psyche, HIMZ Virgins: Just John Wilson, Mac the Dog The Black Death WeePi complained loudly of various bodily ailments but wanted to set just once more before succumbing. "I'm not dead yet but will probably succumb to flu, ebola, lyme disease, and the mumblies by the time you on-in.", quoth he. After searching the medical archives, your humble scribe (after nearly succumbing himself some time ago) has found the cause of the GM's Ye Olde Discomforte. There is a strong historical precedent: Coming out of the East, the Black Death reached the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 unleashing a rampage of death across Europe unprecedented in recorded history. By the time the epidemic played itself out three years later, anywhere between 25% to 50% of Europe's population had fallen victim. The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio lived through the plague as it ravaged the city of Florence in 1348. The experience inspired him to write The Decameron, a story of seven men and three women who escape the disease by fleeing to a villa outside the city. In his introduction to the fictional portion of his book, Boccaccio gives a graphic description of the effects of the epidemic on his city. The following is an excerpt from the book. "The symptoms were not the same as in the East, where a gush of blood from the nose was the plain sign of inevitable death; but it began both in men and women with certain swellings in the groin or under the armpit. They grew to the size of a small apple or an egg, more or less, and were vulgarly called tumours. In a short space of time these tumours spread from the two parts named all over the body. Soon after this the symptoms changed and black or purple spots appeared on the arms or thighs or any other part of the body, sometimes a few large ones, sometimes many little ones. These spots were a certain sign of death, just as the original tumour had been and still remained. No doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease, An enormous number of ignorant men and women set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained. Either the disease was such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, and consequently could not administer the proper remedy. In any case very few recovered; most people died within about three days of the appearance of the tumours described above, most of them without any fever or other symptoms. The violence of this disease was such that the sick communicated it to the healthy who came near them, just as a fire catches anything dry or oily near it. And it even went further. To speak to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death to the living; and moreover, to touch the clothes or anything else the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person touching. Such fear and fanciful notions took possession of the living that almost all of them adopted the same cruel policy, which was entirely to avoid the sick and everything belonging to them. By so doing, each one thought he would secure his own safety. Some thought that moderate living and the avoidance of all superfluity would preserve them from the epidemic. They formed small communities, living entirely separate from everybody else. They shut themselves up in houses where there were no sick, eating the finest food and drinking the best wine very temperately, avoiding all excess, allowing no news or discussion of death and sickness, and passing the time in music and suchlike pleasures. Others thought just the opposite. They thought the sure cure for the plague was to drink and be merry, to go about singing and amusing themselves, satisfying every appetite they could, laughing and jesting at what happened. They put their words into practice, spent day and night going from tavern to tavern, drinking immoderately, or went into other people's houses, doing only those things which pleased them. So now we know the origions of hashing - eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow ... (well, you know the rest). Now which group would you prefer to spend your last days with - the abstemious or the hashers-to-be? Enough said. Next Up: #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park #1228.9 Nov 9th 11:00AM hashathon at Cheesequake State Park then: #1229.9 Nov 16th 2:00PM Hand Solo Sets #1230.9 Nov 23rd 2:00PM Philly marathon recovery run (hare needed) #1231.9 Nov 30th 2:00PM last hash of Nov 2008 (so far it's hareless).