Hey, remember that time it rained meat in Kentucky?

October 30, 2014 1:04 PM

The other day Mrs. Crouch, of Olympian Springs, Ky., was employed in the open air and under a particularly clear sky, in the celebration of those mysterious rites by which the housewife transmutes scraps of meat, bones and effete overshoes into soap. Suddenly there descended upon her a gentle shower of meat. (PDF) That's right, in Bath County, Kentucky, flesh fell from an otherwise clear sky on March 3, 1876. Mentalfoss gathered a collection of old news articles about what people said the sky meat was based on taste and more scientific investigations. Theories for the localized "meat rain" ranged from meat descending from space like meteorites, star jelly, and the most likely, overly full vultures who vomited (Google books preview), but while in flight. One Hundred and Thirty Nine years later--on Sunday, March 3, 2015--Kurt Gohde will re-seed the clouds over Olympia Springs with meat.

Kurt Gohde is an artist from Kentucky, whose previous works include the Lexington Tattoo Project (Google image search with examples of the tattoos), and a collection of photos of discarded couches, found around the United States. Kurt's ownership of one of the rare remaining samples of Kentucky sky meat is casually dropped into articles about him from time to time.

posted by filthy light thief (44 comments total)

The writing in the New York Times PDF is astounding. It goes on to read:

It fell impartially upon the presumably just Mrs. Crouch and her unjust cat, and the latter, conceitedly assuming that at last his merits had been signally recognized, immediately gorged himself with the public breakfast so unexpectedly tendered to him.

The writer, William Livingston Alden, was the one who posited the meteor-like "belt of venison, mutton, and other meats, divided into small fragments, [that revolve around the sun,] which are precipitated upon the earth whenever the latter crosses their path."
posted by filthy light thief at 1:07 PM on October 30, 2014 [17 favorites]

What.
posted by Andrhia at 1:13 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

You're 100% completely right, though, that NYT article is a work of snark beautiful to behold in form and execution.
posted by Andrhia at 1:18 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

So people actually ate some of this vulture vomit? That's metal.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:20 PM on October 30, 2014 [20 favorites]

totally opening a restaurant that serves vulture vomit brb

(watch out for our food truck, Buzzard Barf!)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:21 PM on October 30, 2014 [8 favorites]

This is also on the America's Test Kitchen Radio podcast this week.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:22 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Local artist makes flesh rain in kentucky again for the first time.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:26 PM on October 30, 2014

Sounds like somebody blew the whale.
posted by I-baLL at 1:27 PM on October 30, 2014 [3 favorites]

Suggested tag: EWWWWWWWWWWW
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:34 PM on October 30, 2014

"Food waste as art" is a weird (American?) trend that I'm ready to see wither away. I get unusually upset that my kids get such a kick out of those youtube videos of people dicking around with a week's worth of groceries--you know, ones titled "how to make an omelet" that are actually four minutes of $100 worth of food being splashed and chopped and slung throughout someone's kitchen or bathroom. This whole thing gives me a very "qu'ils mangent de la brioche" vibe that I can imagine sounding nothing but terrible in retrospect.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 1:34 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

So people actually ate some of this vulture vomit? That's metal.

Rock Fact: Early heavy metal band Vülture Vömit was the original impetus for the so-called "devil horns" gesture. Fans would form two Vs with their hands to symbolize the band's name, which was eventually misinterpreted as having santanic or occult origins.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:37 PM on October 30, 2014 [9 favorites]

+1 för süpërflüöüs mëtäl ümläüts.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:45 PM on October 30, 2014 [5 favorites]

As God as my witness I thought turkey vulture vomit could fly.
posted by Kabanos at 1:46 PM on October 30, 2014 [14 favorites]

"Food waste as art"--really? I mean, I wouldn't be completely shocked to learn that such a thing is real, but is it possible they're just really sloppy cooks? I know I am--I do not like to cook, and am well aware that I waste significant amounts of food when I have to cook. I hate it, but am not sure how to fix it.

(My family's food expenditures are a huge portion of our monthly expenses. We are not gourmets, but our expenses when we cook are even higher than when we eat fast food, which as I understand it is not supposed to be the case.)

Do you have a link to anything on such a trend?
posted by Four Ds at 1:48 PM on October 30, 2014

I-baLL, I know you're talking about the exploding whale, but I can't forget Crossed: Wish You Were Here (as said in another thread, the comic is really NSFW, and possibly NSFMentalWellbeing).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:50 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Just this morning I marveled that a local national weather service staffer had managed to insert "a localized SW eddy has spun up a grip of diaphanous clouds" into an otherwise sober morning forecast discussion.

And now here's "localized meat rain" in the afternoon.
posted by notyou at 1:53 PM on October 30, 2014

They have. The secret--and this involves investment of a lot of time and not insignificant upfront costs, so I am not judging anyone who can't or won't do this--is being very careful about coupons and specials (and avoiding the coupon trap), shopping in multiple places, and buying in bulk. It also means moving to a much more vegetable-based diet. It's not difficult to squeeze 5 meals out of $20 for a single person, but it does represent a lot of time and requires infrastructure--like a reliable freezer--to avoid "Soup, again. Hooray." multiple times within one week.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:59 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Do you have a link to anything on such a trend?


I'm pretty sure he's talking about this.
posted by Gymnopedist at 2:00 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Which I guess is another way of noting that everybody complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.

But if Mr Gohde's effort to make the clouds rain meat* were more than a one-off, we'd solve both the problem of the weather, and jrochest's problem of rising food costs.


------------------
*Of course we'd have to fix it so it rains tofu on Mondays.
posted by notyou at 2:01 PM on October 30, 2014

Cloudy, With a Chance of Soy-Based Meat Subsitute?
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:02 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

That trend deserves an FPP of its own -- there's a lot of beanplating potential in that little omelet video!
posted by notyou at 2:04 PM on October 30, 2014

The only flaw in that NYT piece is the failure to use meateors.
posted by pseudonick at 2:11 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

That trend deserves an FPP of its own -- there's a lot of beanplating potential in that little omelet video!


On one hand, all of HowToBasic's videos are incredibly wasteful, and I hate to see food go to waste. On the other hand, they do have an absurd humor to them, and I'm guessing with all of those YouTube views, they probably pay the guy's rent and food bills each month. He probably has a lot of fun making them, too. I'm conflicted.
posted by Gymnopedist at 2:24 PM on October 30, 2014

As meateorological conditions go, I'd prefer a chance of meatballs to a Quornado any day.
posted by uosuaq at 2:35 PM on October 30, 2014 [6 favorites]

As in a tornado of Quorn?


notyou: That trend deserves an FPP of its own

The new fad that's sweeping the nation!
posted by filthy light thief at 2:41 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

No. Nope. No thank you.
posted by maryr at 3:02 PM on October 30, 2014

The writing in the New York Times PDF is astounding.

It really just blew my mind, I love it so much. Thank you for posting this! Is there a collection of writing like this, from this era? It's a wonder to behold:

Of course, the scientific persons will sneer at this explanation, inasmuch as they have not been the first to propose it, and will deny that there are any grounds whatever for a belief in the existence of cosmical meat. But if they believe in a hypothetical belt of meteoric stones, simply because certain stones fall upon the earth's surface, why should they not believe in a possible belt of fresh meat, now that particles of venison and mutton have fallen on Mrs. Crouch and her appreciative cat?

I'm a vegan and I approve this message meatrain. And now I really want to go back in time and change my username to cosmical meat.
posted by divined by radio at 3:27 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

i have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe
posted by pyramid termite at 3:42 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Of course, the scientific persons will sneer at this explanation, inasmuch as they have not been the first to propose it, and will deny that there are any grounds whatever for a belief in the existence of cosmical meat. But if they believe in a hypothetical belt of meteoric stones, simply because certain stones fall upon the earth's surface, why should they not believe in a possible belt of fresh meat, now that particles of venison and mutton have fallen on Mrs. Crouch and her appreciative cat?

This is how religions are formed. Let's start a religion, like right fucking now!!!
posted by Fizz at 3:55 PM on October 30, 2014

It really just blew my mind, I love it so much. Thank you for posting this! Is there a collection of writing like this, from this era? It's a wonder to behold.

Pretty much all of O'Henry. Here's a sampler, chosen for its concern with the weather (Cop and the Anthem):

On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily. When wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husbands, and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park, you may know that winter is near at hand.

A dead leaf fell in Soapy's lap. That was Jack Frost's card. Jack is kind to the regular denizens of Madison Square, and gives fair warning of his annual call. At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboard to the North Wind, footman of the mansion of All Outdoors, so that the inhabitants thereof may make ready.

Soapy's mind became cognisant of the fact that the time had come for him to resolve himself into a singular Committee of Ways and Means to provide against the coming rigour. And therefore he moved uneasily on his bench.

The hibernatorial ambitions of Soapy were not of the highest. In them there were no considerations of Mediterranean cruises, of soporific Southern skies drifting in the Vesuvian Bay. Three months on the Island was what his soul craved. Three months of assured board and bed and congenial company, safe from Boreas and bluecoats, seemed to Soapy the essence of things desirable.

For years the hospitable Blackwell's had been his winter quarters. Just as his more fortunate fellow New Yorkers had bought their tickets to Palm Beach and the Riviera each winter, so Soapy had made his humble arrangements for his annual hegira to the Island. And now the time was come. On the previous night three Sabbath newspapers, distributed beneath his coat, about his ankles and over his lap, had failed to repulse the cold as he slept on his bench near the spurting fountain in the ancient square. So the Island loomed big and timely in Soapy's mind. He scorned the provisions made in the name of charity for the city's dependents. In Soapy's opinion the Law was more benign than Philanthropy. There was an endless round of institutions, municipal and eleemosynary, on which he might set out and receive lodging and food accordant with the simple life. But to one of Soapy's proud spirit the gifts of charity are encumbered. If not in coin you must pay in humiliation of spirit for every benefit received at the hands of philanthropy. As Caesar had his Brutus, every bed of charity must have its toll of a bath, every loaf of bread its compensation of a private and personal inquisition. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not meddle unduly with a gentleman's private affairs.

posted by notyou at 4:00 PM on October 30, 2014 [3 favorites]

Let's start a religion, like right fucking now!!!

Brothers and sisters, welcome to the Church of Right Fucking Now!
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:09 PM on October 30, 2014 [4 favorites]

Well, we know where the meatsteroids must come from: the Meat Planet.
posted by BungaDunga at 5:15 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Hmm.. there's a little footnote on fleshfalls.com

A final, though undocumented, explanation is one of biological warfare. Locals have shared a belief that Confederate soldiers may have fired diseased meat from a canon into a Union camp as a way to spread illness.

Aside from the inconvenient fact that the Civil War ended 11 years earlier, this theory seems more plausible.
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:31 PM on October 30, 2014 [2 favorites]

Piffle. Call me when this artist is able to recreate the Newport (KY) Squirrel Invasion of 1801.
posted by magstheaxe at 6:27 PM on October 30, 2014

charlie don't surf: "Aside from the inconvenient fact that the Civil War ended 11 years earlier"

Well, it could have been a very powerful cannon.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:54 PM on October 30, 2014 [4 favorites]

I am sure Charles Fort had a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, one which he did not himself believe.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:26 PM on October 30, 2014 [3 favorites]

The Monroe Moosnick Medical and Science Museum at Transylvania University in Lexington has a preserved piece of meat from the shower in its collection.

But of course.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:45 PM on October 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

That is a fascinating collection of tags.
posted by brundlefly at 10:41 PM on October 30, 2014

Yeah, that's what they said.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:17 PM on October 30, 2014

Am I the only person wondering just how bad things would smell a few hours after a meat shower? Or the guys who'd have to clean the cars parked outside at the dealership after the meat flakes dry on them? Or the possibility that all that meat could attract hundreds of turkey vultures, "Birds"-style?

Some historical events are more worth re-enactment than others. That Squirrel Invasion, for example. That I would like to see.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:18 AM on October 31, 2014

That is a fascinating collection of tags.

Needs the MeatFilter tag.
posted by resurrexit at 6:34 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

MeatFilter tag added.

DirtyOldTown: Suggested tag: EWWWWWWWWWWW

At this point, only Eww and Ewww have been used. I kept adding Ws, hoping to find something else, but no such luck.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:05 AM on October 31, 2014

Am I the only person wondering just how bad things would smell a few hours after a meat shower?

I am horrified that I know the answer to your question. It does not smell bad for the first few hours. But after a day or so, yeah, the smell of rotting flesh is overpowering.
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:16 PM on October 31, 2014

Oh.. I suppose I shouldn't leave that hanging. My dad hit a cow that strayed on the road, it was awful, let's just call it a short range meat shower of known terrestrial origin.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:47 PM on October 31, 2014