OT "Sasparilla"

[David]

I watched The Big Lebowski yesterday and a guy was drinking it out of what looked like a beer bottle (small brown glass). What is it?

The powers of Kung Fu never fail!
-- Hong Kong Phooey

[Stranger]

It is a root, I think.

I don't get mad.
I get stabby.

[cwheelie]

Correct - it is a plant where the root is used. to make the foreunner of cola's. In some old western movies some newbie in town (or a really really tough guy) would go to the saloon & order 'sasparilla' at which point the local bad ass would pick a fight. FYI- we used to find it growing wild in Virginia - pull it up, clean it off & chew on the root

de ja fu - The feeling that somewhere, somehow you've been kicked in the head like this before.

[Chang Style Novice]

Hmmm...I wonder if I can derail this thread into a debate on the nature of Dark Matter; the missing 87% of the neccessary mass of the universe that even our most sophisticated astronomy can't detect.

Nah, I better not.

I am the Grand Ultimate Offtopic Digressor

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[Chang Style Novice]

On topic -

I've tried sasparilla. It's sort of a cross between ginger ale and root beer.

And Dark Matter.

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[Tigerstyle]

Oh they can detect it, Chang. They just don't want to be laughed at for revealing the truth: Dark Matter is just Sasparilla.

[Stranger]

I thought they were able to find the dark matter, thus proving that the universe was more dense than had been initially guessed, which would result in an eventual end of expansion followed by the universe collapsing upon itself.
The Oscillating Universe Theory! :eek:

Oh yeah, Sylvester the Cat has a hard time saying sasparilla. :D

I don't get mad.
I get stabby.

[Budokan]

My old country grandmother used to make sasparilla from the actual roots she dug out of the ground. Pretty good, too.

K. Mark Hoover

[Chang Style Novice]

Stranger, Tigerstyle -

The latest stuff I've read, at NASA's astronomy picture of the day site suggests that no one has conclusively determined the nature of dark matter, be it an oscillating universe or sasparilla.

This might not be the very best source available, though. I check it every day for the purty pictures anyway.

Once again, I have proven that I am the Grand Ultimate Offtopic Digressor!

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[Stranger]

What really scares me is the new scientific evidence that anti-sasparilla exists. If one sasparilla root were to come in contact with an anti-sasparilla root, the explosion would be catastrophic. :eek:

I don't get mad.
I get stabby.

[origenx]

Perhaps the missing 87% of the neccessary mass is qi, or other forms of subtle energy?

[Chang Style Novice]

Well, it's mass and not energy that's missing (yeah, I know Albert said they were interchangable, but energy still doesn't produce gravity, which is relevant here.)

The basic arguement goes like this.

Our best instruments are only able to detect x amount of total matter in distant galaxies.

However, the neccesary mass to produce the gravity required to keep these galaxies coherent is y, where x=13% of y.

We know the age of these galaxies due to the composition of their stars, and they should have floated apart by now.

Therefore, there is a LOT of matter that we cannot detect.

Since no explanation of qi that I've encountered states that it has mass as well as energy, I doubt that qi is responsible for the dark matter. It's certainly an interesting idea, though, since qi seems to be inextricably bound to living things. If dark matter was qi, there must be an incredible amount of ET life that we don't know about!

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[Kung Lek]

Smilax Officinalis, Sarsaparilla

or "Sarsaparilla"

good for acne, boils and intestenal problems.

is an herb.
Use the latin name above in a search engine to find out more about this very good thing that the earth has provided us with :)

peace

Kung Lek

Martial Arts Links

[Chang Style Novice]

As suggested by Kung Lek, I did a google search of Smilax Officinalis. At this site I found the following caution.

"Sarsaparilla vine should not be confused with the tree, Sasparilla which was once used to flavor rootbeer."

Interesting...

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[Stranger]

So is sasparilla basically "root beer flavored"? Is that the "root" in root beer? :confused:

I don't get mad.
I get stabby.