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Soup in the News

(Archive Dateline: February 1999)

Date Item
2/28/99
TV Guide		 Comic actor Gene Wilder breaks loose as the Mock Turtle in NBC's 3-hour made-for-television movie Alice in Wonderland, singing,
" Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Beautiful, beautiful Soup."
2/28/99
Chicago Sun Times		 McDonald's, trying to shore up its failing 46-store Russian fast-food empire, is testing products that cater to Russian tastes, such as mushroom soup. Its anchor restaurant in Moscow's Pushkin Square is still serving 20,000 customers a day.
2/26/99
Belfast News Letter		 Surviving menu from 1st class Cafe Parisien "last supper" of the Titanic, featuring cream of barley soup, is set to fetch up to 8,000 £ at a Christie's auction. This only such menu to survive the sinking is believed to have been pocketed by Adolphe Saalfeld, who dove into the sea after donating his life jacket and unexpectedly found room aboard a lifeboat. Upon his return to Engliand, he framed and hung it in his Manchester office. In 1953, it was given away to an accountant as a retirement gift. It is this accountant's son who will profit from his dad's retirement.
2/25/99
Africa News		 Yinka Ijabiya reports in a rather tongue-in-cheek article that Clive Burton, busy Regional Director of the British Council for West Africa, has had "quite a box of excitement" in his year on the job, including the showing of silly films, a show or two (dwarfed by the French Cultural Center), and his own personal liking of egusi soup.
2/25/99
The London Times		 Sad to report the death of consummate British comedian Derek Robert Nimmo, famous for playing "the silly ass." Among many shows and talents, he took to the road in the 70s for comedy shows in foreign countries--where in Papua New Guinea he cancelled There's a Girl in my Soup "because I thought it might give them ideas."
2/24/99
The Saigon Times Daily		 In the mood for soup in Ho Chi Minh City? Here are the specialty locations: for chicken and beef soups, go to Vo Thi Sau and Pasteur Streets; for goat meat hot soup, Nguyen Cong Tru Street or Huynh Man Dat Street; for pho, six-way crossroads in District 10; for sweet soups, Vo Van Tan Street; for keo fish hot soup, Su Thien Chieu Street; and for duck soup, go to Thanh Da Peninsula.
2/23/99
AP State and Local Wire		 Louise Koniarski reports from Prescott, Arizona, that a local Yavapai professor took Arizonans on the Chinese tour of their lives, introducing them to Wild Herb Soup with Ants, with a side dish of fried scorpions. Rose Davis gamely commented, "The scorpions were better than the grasshoppers, and the soup was actually not bad."
2/23/99
CBS This Morning		 Jane Robelot and John Roberts interview 90-year-old Dr. Michael DeBakey, who continues to practice medicine and perform heart surgeries, asking him the secret to his vitality. "He lives a healthy life, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, and eats sensible foods like soup and vegetables."
2/22/99
London Financial Times		 Raymond Gubbay's lavish mounting of Puccini's opera Tosca at Prince Albert Hall gets a heavy panning--asking rhetorically, "And was it really a good idea for [Susan Bullock as Tosca] to sing "Vissi d'arte" kneeling among the soup dishes on the table?"
2/21/99
Agence France Presse		 Recently captured Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on the Turkish island of Imrali and reportedly suffering with stomach ailments, is being fed a diet of soup, potatoes, and vegetables. Although doctors have advised Ocalan to cut down his tobacco habit, he continues to smoke heavily.
2/21/99
Knight-Ridder News Service		 Humorist Dave Barry laments the federal budget surplus currently "raging out of control," citing the funding of such worthy causes as "researchers studying the dangers of inadequately heated soup."
2/21/99
Los Angeles Times magazine		 Pat Morrison reviews the recently published diary of Lucy Fiennes Kendall, English-born woman who arrived in California in 1852 for the Gold Rush--recounting of her 137-day sea journey down and back up the Americas that "the captain ordered the cook flogged--though flogging was by then illegal--for burning the soup."
2/20/99
London Financial Times		 In recounting the dangerous conflict over oil wealth in the Niger delta, Robert Corzine and William Wallis cite the complaint of an old tribeswoman, concerned about environmental damage: "the only fish we can find here now are small and bony. We call them 'broke marriage' because their flesh melts into the soup and husbands accuse their wives of feeding it to another man."
2/20/99
America magazine		 Joseph Feeney, English professor and discoverer of unknown poem "Consule Murphy" by the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, writes of his difficulty explicating certain phrases in the poem, such as "an Apostle whose method is 'souping.'" Turns out to be the name for a method of making converts to Catholicism--by offering soup, food, or sweets.
2/18/99
San Diego Tribune		 David Elliot reports on the 15th San Diego International Film Festival, including Spicy Love Soup, a Chinese film by Director Zhang Yang, described as "a nonpolitical comedy in which five stories bubble up from a hot pot, [about] tales of young and old romance."
2/17/99
New York Times		 Ruth Reichl reports that a bowl of turnip soup costs $25 at Les Celebrite Restaurant in Essex House, "a timid soup that seems terrified to take on the flavor of the turnips."
2/15/99
AP Worldstream		 Christopher Bodeen reports from Tapei that this year's "Wei Ya" corporate banquets celebrating the Chinese New Year, usually so lavish, are dramatically downsized because of Taiwan's slowed economy. "Wei ya"--meaning "tail and tooth" in Mandarin--has a tradition where if the head of the whole chicken in the soup is facing you, you're fired.
2/15/99
New York Post		 Jay Greenberg, in his review of best and worst qualities of NYC sports personalities, identifies Leon Johnson of the Jets as one of the "most generous" because he "ladles soup and caring at a Long Island shelter."
2/15/99
Associated Press State and Local		 Heather Jensen reports that 11-year-old Katie Davidson of Pigeon, Michigan, learned more than she wanted at Space Camp about food in space: "We had peaches, ice cream and chicken noodle soup. It was really gross. If you chew it, it sticks to your teeth, so you have to suck it."
2/15/99
The Hindu		 Captured in he writings of R. K. Narayan, Chettinadu cuisine--from Southern India--is coming into its own, as noted during the 10-day-long festival in Savera, including attukal soup, milagu kozhi soup, kaikari thakkali, soup, muringakkai soup, and the original form of the national soup, milagu thanni soup. This Dravidian culture, which flourished 4, 500 years ago, is commonly known as "Tamil" food or "southern India" food--and is unusual in the subcontinent in highlighting soup as a part of its cuisine.
2/13/99
Associated Press state wire		 Becky Barclay reports that "Opie Miller," 22-year-old North Carolinian, will start out at sunrise 2/15/99 on his 5½-month trek of 2,156 miles along the Appalachian Train in the cause of cancer research. Miller will carry everything on his back--but his Dad is sending bulk foods to post offices along the way, including a steady diet of noodle soup and dehydrated vegetables for dinners.
2/12/99
Sports Illustrated		 Richard Hoffer reports on Charles Barkley's hot prospects with the Houston Rockets during the current short NBA season, noting that Barkley prepared by spending a week in December at an LA spiritual retreat where he had an apple for breakfast, hiked 15 miles, then came back to the spa for a bowl of soup. The upshot? He lost 17 pounds and gained leg strength.
2/12/99
Scottish Daily Record		 On the heels of rock group Blondie's comeback with "Maria," its first Number #1 hit in 17 years, John Dingwall reports on Debbie Harry's battle back to success. Harry, now 53, essentially gave up her career to keep longtime lover and lead guitarist Chris Stein alive by spoonfeeding soup to him, after he'd been stricken with a potentially fatal skin disease in 1981. The group broke up in 1983; then, when Chris began to recover in 1983, the relationship broke up. Just last year the group got back together.
2/12/99
South China Morning Post		 Joe Cochran reports that police are investigating the possibility that an unidentified young girl in Cambodia was dismembered and made into soup for sale in a Phnom Penh food stall. There's a precedent. In the early 1970s, police documented that human soup was served at a Phnom Pehn food stall.
2/11/99
Atlanta Journal and Constitution		 On the occasion of Presidents' Day, Betty Parham features www.soupsong.com in "Cyberspice." This "humorous, award-winning site," she says, is "chock-full of--of all things--the favorite soups of celebrities, presidents included. There is the mock turtle soup of Abraham Lincoln, JFK's cream of chicken and onion soups, Gerald Ford's navy bean soup, Ronald Reagan's hamburger soup and many more. Incidentally, Linda Tripp's (who is listed as a late 20th-century audiotape specialist) favorite is cabbage soup, and her friend Monica's favorite is pumpkin (this info from the tapes)."
2/11/99
Men's Health		 Melissa Gotthardt reports in the March issue on "manly soups" that "can help you build muscle, drop pounds, and make sure your noodle doesn't chicken out in the bedroom." Her best offering? "Sex stew" with zinc-y oysters, aphrodisiac celery, garlic for blood flow "to all the right places," and carbohydrates "for staying power."
2/10/99
Chicago Tribune		 Television critic Steve Johnson reports on Stephen King's creepy "Storm of the Century" that "its most distinctive characteristic is that it makes the viewer want to eat soup." The 3-part mini-series is set in a "snowbound atmosphere...in combination with the requisite King blizzard of creatively rendered evil."
2/9/99
Atlanta Constitution		 Local chef Jenny Levison is sponsoring "Aphrodisiac Soup Week" in honor of St. Valentine's festivities. Her menu features Love Potion No. 9, Menage à Pois, and Spanish Fly Shiitake Soups.
2/9/99
The Wellington (New Zealand) Dominion		 71-year-old Northlander Harry Field recalls--at last and only under the pressure of an insurance court case--his days in a German forced labor munitions factory during World War II. Field, who was arrested in 1943 by the Gestapo in Belgium for his underground resistance activities, was "fed one meal of thin cabbage soup a day, sometimes with a potato in it." Liberation came two years later--and ultimately resettlement in New Zealand.
2/9/99
London Times		 Following King Hussein's funeral in Jordan, the Prince of Wales dashed back for a delayed appointment: tea and lentil soup at an organic form near Oxford run by the National Trust.
2/8/99
Toronto Star		 British Minister of Agriculture, Nick Brown, caused a ruckus among farmers by asking for a six-month extension of the "beef-on-the-bone ban." The ban--which was imposed for public health reasons--allows oxtails to be sold commercially for soup, but not sold by butchers as food on the bone.
2/7/99
Los Angeles Times		 Life on the movie set of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, directed by Alan Parker, is full of passion, poverty, and babies. Child actor Joe Breen, who plays the protagonist at age 6, has brought professionalism and a dislike of soup to the set. "Do I really have to eat my soup in this scene?" he asked the director--and when he was told he didn't, said, "Ah, Alan Parker, you're the best director I ever worked with."
2/6/99
Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel		 Florida Panthers ice hockey team raised $300,000 at their "Waiter There's A Puck In My Soup" fundraising dinner--largely to benefit children's charities.
2/6/99
London Times		 Stephen McClarence reports that Spicy Serpent Head Soup is back on the menu at street vendors in Phnom Penh, one sign that Cambodia is beginning to recover from its years of genocide. A Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center has been preserved as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum as a grim reminder, for tourists and natives alike, of the 2 million Cambodians assassinated during the Pol Pot regime.
2/5/99
Agence France Presse		 Convicted rapist Leo Echegaray was executed in the Philippines, the first in 23 years, causing an embarrasment of grotesque press and celebrity attention--including fights for ringside seats, intercepting the body on its way to the morgue, and demands to know the contents of his last meal. The answer to the last? He asked for soup, but was prevailed on by his lawyers to eat prawns, beef stew, and grilled milkfish as well.
2/4/99
Denver Post		 This year commemorates the 200th anniversary of George Washington's death...and the Mount Vernon/Father of our Country Industry is going to publicize it til the cows come home. Special programs at Mount Vernon itself. Virginia Peanut Soup with period costumed waiters at the Mount Vernon Inn. A traveling exhibition. Display (including real false teeth!) at the New York Historic Society...which will travel to California, Ricmond, Atlanta, and Chicago. Alexandria festivities. Gambolling down the George Washington Trail to Federicksburg and Williamsburg. Oh boy.
2/3/99
AP Online		 For the second time in one week, wildlife authorities in Perlis, Malaysia, caught big time snake smugglers--who hoped to supply the Chinese gourmet demand for Snake Soup. First authorities arrested 2 men with 555 live poisonous snakes, mostly cobras, from Thailand. Then they intercepted a truckload of more than 700 live snakes--600 cobras, 43 banded kraits, and 60 freshwater snakes coiled inside sacks--and arrested 2 men.
2/3/99
Billboard magazine		 Swedish rock group "The Twelve Caesars" have cut a single entitled "(I'm Gonna) Kick You Out," which features as lyrics, "I am what I am.../A man with a fork in a world of soup." Reviewers predict possible Top 40 success based on its ability to "adequately express the singular epiphany of ousting a tainted love, always great fodder for a pop song."
2/2/99
The Hindu		 World chess champion Garry Kasparov made a theoretical draw against Vladimir Kramnik in the final round of the 61st Hoogovens Grandmaster Chess Tournament, winning his first comeback title in the tournament cycle. Hometown Indian top-seed Anand came in second. Prizes were distributed with the traditional offer of pea soup. This year, in fact, the 2000 Dutch chess enthusiasts ate a record quantity of the stuff.
2/1/99
Agence France Presse		 A survey of 45 hot pot restaurants in Shanghai (China) by the Health Bureau and other departments last week found that nearly a quarter of them routinely slipped opiates into the soup. Although China strictly bans the cultivation of poppies for the purpose of producing heroin, opium, and morphine, "ordinary people have always known about this practice," said Li, one hot pot enthusiast. "You notice getting a craving." Joint investigations with police are now underway to determine where the operators are acquiring the opiates.
2/1/99
The New York Times		 This year's "Souperbowl Sunday"--which has teenagers collecting money for soup kitchens at the church door on Superbowl Sunday--was a great success. As of 10 pm on Sunday night, over $1,760,000 had been reported as proceeds from 8,500 participating churches--already exceeding last year's collection of $1,694,014.
2/1/99
Chicago Tribune		 Louisiana's Republican party is again attempting to bump Iowa for the spot as the nation's first GOP presidential battleground. State representative Tony Perkins notes, "It will start the presidential process off with some spice. They will have gumbo instead of corn soup."
2/1/99
Fortune		 Paul Lukas reports that New York market researcher Mark DiMassimo can explain why last November's elections didn't play out as forecast: they did not turn out enough of the Campbell Soup consumer vote. Tracking a survey that correlated political attitudes with brand loyalty, DiMassimo determined that 84% of Campbell Soup partisans favored Bill Clinton's impeachment, the highest such figure for any brand surveyed--including Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Fantastik, and Tide.
2/1/99
Playboy		 David Sheff's interview of Emeril Lagasse, New Orleans chef and host of Emeril Live, reveals that Emeril owes his success to Mom's great soups. His first teacher, Hilda Lagasse taught him how to make Portuguese kale soup and stew. Of course when she appears on his show and corrects his recipes, he replies, "Come on, Ma! It's my show."