I was reminded today that I meant to post something about Popeye by the fact that a new blogger-friend actually has a category called ‘Popeye and Sailors’ on her blog, Months of Edible Celebrations.
Yes, it’s true. Superheroes do keep popping up in my life (as I noted in an earlier post), and though Popeye is kind of an old guy, apparently Mental Floss magazine thinks well enough of him to give him Superhero status.
But how did he get his powers? From spinach.
But was it really the spinach that did it? Or was it only in his mind?
While Popeye should be applauded for persuading a nation to eat its greens, he did mislead people a bit. The government’s enthusiasm for spinach was based in part on the calculations of German scientist Dr. E von Wolf, who’d discovered in 1870 that spinach contains iron. When calculating the results, he misplaced a decimal point, thereby making it “official” that spinach had 10 times more iron than it actually did. Not until years later were these figures rechecked. But by then, everyone was downing their spinach, hoping to be as tough as Popeye.
(See link to article at Mental Floss for full story.)
Math is not my strong point either.
What a great mistake, though. What would Popeye have done without it!
I wouldn’t doubt Popeye’s strength, but his taste ranks with his own math prowess. Canned spinach is inedible. I was in my twenties before I realized that spinach could be eaten fresh, like lettuce; and, thus uncanned, tastes fine.
Spinach was something from a can when I was growing up also.
It was always served in a greenish puddle with a slice of salted butter set upon it and a good douse of cider vinegar poured over it.
Strange combination.
I haven’t had it like that for years but every once in a while get a craving for it (which I rapidly quench!).