Snarky McSnide Says, Deja Vu all over again?
Deja Vu all over again?
Here in 2018 one of the Khashoggis loses his head in Istanbul. Those accused of doing the deed are the present day rulers of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Khashoggi's family made their money as arms dealers. This Khashoggi sojourned in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden. He allegedly was on good terms with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Return with us now to the days of yesteryear.
What happened two hundred years before?
Abdullah ibn Saud was the ruler of part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Was he a bad guy? The Turks thought so. The Saudis had captured Medina and Mecca. That made the Turks look weak as they were the protectors of the holy cities. To solve the problem, they looked to Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. The Khedive was himself from Macedonia and had ended up in Egypt with a bunch of Albanians. Napoleon had just left and the place was in a shambles. Ali Pasha took control in a vacuum. The only force to oppose him were the Mamluks. He invited their leaders to a meeting and killed them all.
At the Sultan's request, Ali sent a son after the Saudis. He failed. Another son was sent, he succeeded. Two hundred years ago, in 1818, the ruler of Saudi Arabia was hauled in chains to Istanbul. He was put in a cage for all to see. Then his head was chopped off.
The Khedive then built up an army and navy and invaded Turkey, intent on capturing Istanbul. He was stopped repeatedly by the European powers.
His followers ruled Egypt intermittently until overthrown by Naguib and Nasser in the 1950s.
So, would it be safe to say that the Egyptians and the Turks and the Saudis are not real close friends?
Nobody cared too much until oil changed the balance of power in the Middle East. Now the knives are out in the open.
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Now that there are no more greyhounds and few horses at Hialeah Racetrack, what will happen to the flamingoes?
Are you tired of turkey for Thanksgiving?
In Ancient Rome, flamingo tongues were considered a great delicacy. In fact, Pliny the Elder wrote in the Encyclopedia of Natural History that one famous food-lover said that they have “a specially fine flavor.”
Whole flamingoes were also eaten. A cookbook from the time gives these instructions for turning a flamingo into a meal: “Scald the flamingo, wash and dress it, put it in a pot, add water, salt, dill, and a little vinegar to be parboiled. Finish cooking with a bunch of leeks and coriander, and add some reduced must [grape juice] to give it color.” Sounds delicious
