Posted on 08/21/2011 3:22:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
From launching tomatoes to heaving tunas, people love to throw food, and some of the most spirited annual events offer an excuse to do so.
Rumored to have originated as a local brawl (possibly an attack on city council members by disgruntled townspeople), La Tomatina in Buñol, Spain, is the world's largest food fight. In late August, the event attracts some 45,000 people who throw more than 250,000 pounds of overripe tomatoes at one another. “Participants have a wonderful time throwing tomatoes at anything that moves,” according to the Tourist Office of Spain.
A horn signals the start of the event, but only after an agile attendee manages to climb a greased pole and reach a dangling leg of jamón. The free-for-all continues for an hour and ends when another horn is sounded. There are few guidelines, but participants do squash tomatoes before throwing them (it hurts less), and many wear masks (tomatoes can make eyes itch).
Another bizarre food activity takes place at the Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln, Australia. Going on its 50th year, the festival’s main attraction is the World Champion Tuna Toss Competition, where contestants sling 20-pound tunas. The record of approximately 40 yards was set in 1998 by a pro: former Olympic hammer thrower Sean Carlin.
Instead of throwing food, visitors to the Cheese Curd Festival in Ellsworth, Wis., prefer to admire it. In celebration of the century-old Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery, the self-proclaimed "Cheese Curd Capital" hosts an annual cheese-curd-eating contest and cheese-carving competition. One recent sculpture depicted a lion eating ice cream.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I may be the resident crank but I hate to see this stuff.
Thousands of people starve to death daily. To see food thrown around like dirt disturbs me.
Yes, I know, no one wants to cook and can and distribute the tomatoes to the poor. I haven’t volunteered, so perhaps I have no leg to stand upon.
It seems to me ugly offensive, though, like gluttony on a grand scale, and I find it repellent.
They did this yesterday in Pittston Pennsylvania at the 21st Pittston Tomato Festival.
“I may be the resident crank...”
You aren’t the only one. I remember my parents seeing stuff like this and saying that it was rather “sinful” to disregard food that way. I was raised that food shouldn’t be wasted (if there was leftovers and not enough for another meal... then the dogs ate it). The point is that it wasn’t wasted. Perhaps... it is how we were raised?!
Smelt Wrestling
I was raised the same way, but I think the idea of a food fight is nestled deep in our brains. We used to launch apple sauce from spoons in the school cafeteria and had a grand time doing it, too. It sure looks like juvenile fun, no one gets hurt, etc.
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