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Friday, September 7, 2007

“Knowing that a Tintin-loving Belgian named Claude Souvenir is partially responsible for our album title is a delight.”

posted by on September 7 at 15:32 PM

My nefarious influence on the world via Wikipedia continues:

Hi Brendan

Just read your humorous account of discovering your own “facts” on wikipedia. Funnier yet: I’m in a band in LA that named our album The Ortolan after reading that same wikipedia entry. It comes out nationwide next Tuesday… Anyways, knowing that a Tintin-loving Belgian named Claude Souvenir is partially responsible for our album title is a delight.

Best, Will

Here’s the short version: About ten years ago, in Paris, after a very long and great dinner, I had a tipsy conversation with a suspicious Belgian named Claude Souvenir who told me about how one eats the ortolan, a tiny bird that is customarily caught, tortured, and eaten whole, with rich Christian symbolism.

My memory of that conversation made it into this article, which I wrote last year. Then my memory of that conversation went up on Wikipedia, presented in a sort of authoritative way.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across my own quote, while doing research for something else. I thought it was funny that my memory would be cited as an authority on anything and wrote this story about it.

Then Will (above) wrote me the letter about reading my story about reading my own memory in a Wikipedia article—the same article that influenced the choice of his band’s album.

Anyway, the Wikipedia article in which my memory was cited as an authority—I’ve been edited out of it. Which is sort of insulting and sort of relieving.

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1

i remember my mother describing the method of eating this bird to me when i was around 10 or 11. it stuck with me pretty vividly, though i realized a few years ago i had confused the method of preparation and consumption with fois gras. fortunately, i have some soft part of my heart that bleeds for the little critters of nature, and i wouldn't de-eye, force-feed until organ eruption, drown, or consume whole shrouded in a towel any of the little guys unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for my continued survival.

Posted by diggum | September 7, 2007 4:02 PM

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