Thursday, February 14, 2008

Believe It Or Not, An Update On Meat Hooks

Back in July of 2004 (the 22nd, to be exact), I had a post about meat hooks. More correctly, about people hanging from them. Here was an excerpt:
MIAMI - Police in the Florida Keys are mystified by a bizarre new pastime — young people dangling themselves from meat hooks on a popular sandbar.

The vagaries of sandbar popularity are well beyond me, but the mention of "young people" dangling from meat hooks certainly got my attention. String six of them closely together and I think you'd have a wind chime.

Last week, I received an e-mail from someone whose screen name I will not include in full, but started with the word "Madame." The subject of the e-mail was "About your blog on meat hooks." Here's what she wrote:
There are laws against it unless it's in a church and done for religious spiritual purposes. It originates from tribes using it for spiritual purposes. What happens when you pull on the hooks embedded in your skin over your shoulder blades is that all the endorphins in your body release. It produces a natural high and sets you in a euphoric state. This is why kids do this. It's not technically an illegal or foreign substance, but you seemed extremely disturbed by it.

I prefer my excruciating pain to be involuntary, but that's just me.

"Madame" was very polite, actually, so thanks to her for writing in. And yes, she mentioned that she won a meat hook tug-of-war contest in a piercing parlor once.

The next sound you hear will be me hitting the floor when I pass out.

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