Breaking the Association of Pigs and Truffles

The Los Angeles Times ran a nice article (here) this morning about the spike in truffle prices in France, largely due to a drought that has reduced the size of the annual harvest. The article is accompanied by a picture of a truffle hunter and his dog, not his pig. It goes on to note, sadly, that "truffle-hunting pigs--bigger, hungrier and harder to manage--have largely fallen out of favor." Perhaps this headline in The Onion--"Airport Security Pig Finds Concealed Truffles"--was a sign of the times. For a brief history of why pigs have traditionally proved so good at finding truffles, see this 1982 article by Walter Sullivan in the New York Times.

Le Cochon Danseur

Here is a wonderful and strange film from 1907, the Pathé short "Le Cochon Danseur." According to the IMDB it should be about four minutes long; someone has edited the YouTube version down to these key moments, I suppose. I've been watching a lot of early American films lately for my cultural history course and was glad I found this one. Enjoy. For those of you fluent in French, there is a brief wikipedia article about the film here.

A Holiday Pig (Well, Wild Boar) Attack

According to the BBC (here), a 198 pound wild boar somehow got into a clothing shop in the French city of Poitiers, charging at customers and police before being taken out. Fifteen people were evacuated from the store, which was closed for two hours. While I'm sure there are better accounts in French, which I don't read, the BBC piece notes that for some reason wild boars were being relocated in the area by forestry workers. I, of course, thought of wild hogs yesterday on the drive to Hilton Head for the holidays, as we crossed the Ocmulgee River and traversed good wild hog territory.

Good luck with your own last minute holiday shopping, everybody...