Picture source
Curious Expeditions has a good overview of The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, as well as a little on the London Beer Flood of 1814. Highly recommended article and site. (I had previously linked their wonderful post of beautiful libraries)
An excerpt from the Wikipedia article which Curious Expeditions links:
The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. A truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. Approximately 150 were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed — some were crushed and drowned by the molasses. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast.
2 comments:
Great! The question is, who is the god of molasses?
My guess would be the offspring of Hephaestus and Demeter. The more mature, and hence unsulphured children, tend more toward their mother to closer reflect the connection to the sugar beet plant.
Of course, maybe the sugar/sulphur combination reflects the natural offspring of Hephaestus and Aphrodite (a sugar substitute?). Although Book 8 of The Odyssey shows what happens when Ares intrudes on the vulcan's turf.
Then again, maybe I'm overthinking this and the answer is really Brer Rabbit.
Post a Comment