Capybara

I'd like to preface this post with something that I think I'm going to be saying more in the next few years and will probably result in the continual shaping of this blog. Matt and I started Blast Shields Down during our freshman year of college. Our original intent was to have a place to work as a team and put the things we made and wanted to say down together. But more than that too we wanted a way to stay connected and close to one another. Its been a few years. And, if the summers of little substance here are any indication than I think we have at least some anecdotal evidence that BSD has been serving its purpose. Also, its helped to keep us in touch with other friends of ours and other bloggers who we might rarely see. It hasn't always been a strong dialogue but its been a dialogue none the less. I say this because it hit me a few weeks ago that in a rather short time the distance between Matt and myself is going to be even greater. Unlike him I'm not graduating this year. Unlike me, he is probably going to be out of state for the next couple of years for Grad School. Almost in anticipation of this seperation Matt and I have started emailing one another much more; keeping up an almost constant correspondence through the weeks. But, because of my realizattion that soon it'll be bon voyage to Matt, I decided to post here on BSD something I easily could have emailed to him. This way he can see, you can see it, and BSD might learn again to serve its purpose...

"During the Christian observation of Lent, capybara meat is especially popular as it is claimed that the Catholic church, in a special dispensation, classified the animal as a fish in the 16th century. (cf. Barnacle goose) There are differing accounts of how the dispensation arose. The most cited refers to a group of 16th Century missionaries who made a request which implied that the semi-aquatic capybara might be a "fish" and also hinted that there would be an issue with starvation if the animal weren't classified as suitable for Lent."

...and if thats not weird enough, just listen to this....