Almost a cake and go green by burying your placenta

Early May is usually slow as it is the time of the AGA conference also known as Digestive Disease Week or DDW. A week of digestive diseases - a feast for the senses! So people don't really sign up for cake slots so we may have to resort to whatever is available. That's how we ended up with Hostess "Muffin Loaf" treats for today along with some Oreos and M&M peanuts. It's what the candy machine had to offer.  Whoever heard of Hostess Muffin Loaves?   It turned out to be a sort of distended blueberry muffin that was very soft and moist but not particularly bursting with blueberries. In fact, it did not appear to have single intact berry at all. It didn't taste bad but is probably not recommended for the finest establishments.  For the lack of anything else it served its purpose.   The Oreos and the M&M peanuts were offered for those muffin loaf skeptics.

What the candy machine hath wrought!

Good old Oreos!

Who knew they made such a thing?

Can you find the intact blueberry?

Our conversation was quite broad. We started by helping one of our European colleagues with his attempt to improve his English vocabulary.  He knew what necrophilia (it's from the Greek after all) but was not aware the meaning of obtrusive. The we switched to palindromes (nobody knew any) followed by the recent South Park episode where the Germans were declared the most Unfunny People. The German American among us, after some thought, agreed that is probably the case.

This German Shepherd looks like fun!

Somehow we got to animal births and were shown pictures from the recently witnessed birth of a calf. This prompted the question as to whether the mother ate the afterbirth or placenta. Of course, she did was the response.  This led further to reminiscing about the research previously done on human placentas where three of them were put in a huge blender with phenol to extract RNA.  After a lot of whirring you had toxic placental soup! The observation was made that despite any claims to the contrary given the gross anatomy and appearance of the afterbirth there is no way that any human could ever eat one.  (Some natural birth followers supposedly do.)  Trust us, there is no way that anyone is going to eat that bag of veins and fascia because there is no taste or other sensation associated with eating that could ever be satisfied.

How about a slice of this bag o' veins??

Then we heard how a relative, who was also very earth oriented, delivered her baby, buried the placenta and planted a tree on top of it completing some circle of life or environmental purpose.  We don't know how the tree is doing but imagined the placenta was probably dug up by some coyote or other predator and thereby ended up being eaten one way or another.  Can't you just imagine a pack of them tossing it around and tearing it to pieces?  Those coyotes know how to have fun - unlike the Germans!!