Trenchers are a type of bread, often stale, that was used for serving food on, shaped like a large plate or bowl. It’s often characterized as being a specialty of cuisine in medieval europe, but the existence of trenchers is attested to in much earlier times as well, and as being around the world (really, anywhere where bread was ever made). Often, after the meal, the trencher would be given to the poor as alms, but often it was simply also eaten. Because, let’s be honest, eating a big ol’ hunk of bread that has all the food and sauces from your meal in it does sound pretty appetizing.

In Virgil’s Aeneid, trenchers are even the subject of a prophecy. In Book 3, Aeneas recounts to Dido how he heard a prophecy from Calaneo, chief of the Furies, that, while he and his men would eventually reach Italy, but

Never shall you build your promised city

Until the injury you did us by this slaughter

Has brought you to a hunger so cruel

That you gnaw your very tables.

This prophecy is not fulfilled until Book 7, when the Trojan refugees, after a lean feast, are so hungry that they happily eat up their trenchers as well. Aeneas’ son, Ascanius, makes a joke about how everyone’s so hungry that they’re considering eating their tables, at which point Aeneas realizes that, since trenchers are technically sort of a table, the prophecy has been fulfilled.

I now can tell you, my father Anchises

Revealed these secrets to me for he said:

"When you have sailed, son, to an unknown shore

And, short of food, are driven to eat your tables,

Then, weary though you are, hope you are home

Sadly, as time progressed, people began to make trenchers less and less as people decided to use wooden plates and bowls instead.

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        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Yea the vibe I got is they were probably someone who was into that shit before radicalizing and just had that floating around as uninterrogated brainworms

      • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Always check the username. They try too hard to fit in

        has pretty much the word communist for a user name

        :fry:

                    • AlephNull [she/her]
                      ·
                      3 years ago
                      http://rumandmonkey.com/articles/221

                      Here at Rum and Monkey, we're proud to say we hate the President. That's because we believe in democracy, and true democracy is about being able to voice your opinion in the way you like, and being able to pick between strong leaders to run your country. Unfortunately, while we hate George W Bush with a passion normally reserved for ambrosia salad and Drew Carey, there is a very real danger that he will be re-elected. The reason? The John Kerry campaign sucks like your grandmother.

                      Part of the reason for its undying suckage is Kerry's apparent inability to send out a strong message. The message he should be sending is: "George W Bush is a mass-murderer, a liar, potentially a war criminal and sits over an incompetent administration that cannot run the country without needlessly killing soldiers, losing jobs and forming a giant budget deficit." The message he's actually sending is: "I'm sort of great, me."

                      This is not a genius campaign plan.

                      Therefore, we at Rum and Monkey have decided to help him out and write a couple of advertisements. John, if you're reading, you can have these for free. We're sure they will propel you through the stratosphere and straight into the oval office; trust us.

                      Generic advertisements that everyone will love

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. George W Bush claims to be a War President who is strong on terror. I agree. Vote for peace and a stable world in which to raise our children. Vote for Kerry.

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. When George W Bush was governor of Texas, he executed more prisoners than any other governor in history. Now he's President, he's killing more soldiers than any President since Lyndon Johnson. Where will the killing stop? Think of the children. Vote for Kerry.

                      Specialist advertisements for hitherto-untapped members of the voting population

                      I'm John F Kerry and I enjoy Star Trek. Arguably the original series is more of an attempt at mainstream entertainment, while The Next Generation uses its studio carte blanche to explore philosophical, theological and scientific topics within a science fiction framework. Deep Space 9 is mostly lame despite being an interesting social commentary about politics, while Voyager is merely an attempt to cash in on the preceding. Captain Picard is my hero. Live long and prosper. Set phasers on stun! Vote for Kerry.

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. In my youth, I was an MC at my local youth group. We would hang out and drink Cristal; sometimes, during the slow summer months, we would bitch and hoe. Often we would freestyle until dawn. John Kerry is the voice of east-side and west-side. Vote for him, yo.

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. In public, I say that I don't approve of gay marriage, but that's just to pander to those darned conservatives. I'm down with the pink vote. I dig Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell. I've been to San Francisco and Provincetown. A vote for Kerry is a vote for gayness. Vote with your heart.

                      Advertisements for Republicans, diagnosed psychopaths and evangelical Christians

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. Many ministers believe George W Bush to be Satan. [Insert clips of ministers saying just that.] Maybe you don't want to vote for me because you think I'm a liberal. Maybe you don't want to vote for me because you think I'm soft on terror. But at least I'm not the Prince of Darkness. I'm John Kerry and Jesus is on my side.

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. I realise that, sometimes, through no fault of your own, lives can go awry. What we knew to be reality has become unreality, and the very fabric of the universe seems to be falling apart. People are in your way and you can't - hell, you don't want to - empathise. Friend, yell all you want; raise your fists at the sky and scream. I'll be with you. A vote for John Kerry is a vote for the mentally ill.

                      I'm John F Kerry and I approve this message. I'm made of bees. Bees!

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        TrueDialecticalMarxist - Obvious Fed

        SmsHmyBoibussy69420 - Undeniable comrade.

  • buh [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There are really mfs out there who are fine with cops following elder scrolls logic, where stealing a piece of bread can escalate to execution

  • effervescent [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I get so tired of the bashing of poor people for having cell phones or buying expensive shoes. Guess what? A lot of my students are super fucking possessive of their cell phones and shoes because they couch surf after school most days. And they get expensive shoes with tax money because they last longer. It’s such a ludicrous standard coming from people who have institutionally ensured that they will never talk to a poor person in their lives

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      My phone is what I use for 95% of computing tasks outside of work. The only pc I have and get to use outside of work is a crappy 1st gen i3 laptop, that can barely do anything anymore. And I really can't afford a new PC, though though finding dumped/thrown away parts and garage sales I might build myself something decent hopefully

      So yeah

  • buh [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    so it turns out the deer head incident at the school that had a shooting today was not done by the shooter, which means there is another crazy violent student there :desolate:

  • Lil_Revolitionary [she/her,they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I have exactly one bumper sticker on my car and it says JEB!

    Everyone across the political spectrum thinks it's funny, $3 well spent :jeb:

  • clover [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Really hate that feeling that’s like “tomorrow’s a new day, I could get started on any one of my dreams.” Tomorrow comes and goes and yeah, nothing changes but sometimes I even forget I thought any of this at 2 am. Brother I wish I was medicated :meow-coffee:

  • silent_water [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I finally have plane tickets and a hotel room for my surgery, literally 24 hours before we needed to be at the airport. jfc. we might be squeezing into a room that's too small for 3 people and a parrot but at least I'll have a door I can close when I need to dilate. I'm not out like 6k on a place stay for 6 weeks and I guess that's the important part.

    I'm just so, so ready to be on the far side of this. I don't have the words to express how important it is to me that this goes off without a hitch and I wake up in the hospital bed coming off anesthetics, sans the bits I really need gone. just one week to go.

  • KenBonesWildRide [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I was trying to find an old John Kerry copypasta and quickly remembered how many comments were literally just the words “John Kerry” over and over. We very purposefully didn’t let ironic Kerryposting grow because that would’ve been hellish to try and decide which Kerryposts were “good faith”. But that also means that none of their bits got preserved. Well... except for a few from my personal notes

    Edit: Fun fact. The original Discord user who tried to force the John Kerry bit into existence once DMed one of the devs some threatening shit, which required the dev to add them as a friend. Which meant we got to see when John Forbes Kerry was playing Roblox (hint: it was a lot)

  • acealeam [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    there is nothing worse than trying to show someone a problem only to not be able to reproduce it in that moment.

  • AlephNull [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The neighbourly neighbour has gone beyond being neighbourly and is now leaving love letters in my mailbox :cringe:

  • Rem [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Doing ritual self harm by following the Supreme Court proceedings on abortion and seeing the libs arguing that Roe should be kept because it's bad to overturn precedent, that's their best case they can make

  • Koa_lala [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I am really worried about the near future. My life feels completely upredictable and uprooted. There is literally nothing to hold on to. It's existential dread that I can't shake. Everything I feared seems to become reality now. Civilization seems to be rapidly unraveling and there is no end in sight. I literally can't do shit to stop it. This week has been really bad for me mentally. Geez. I needed to vent a bit.