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# A Pirate of Exquisite Mind
I started to read the diaries of William Dampier, a 17th century buccaneer, naturalist, explorer, and while they're entertaining and very readable (and I've since read three of them), I just kind of dove in without knowing a whole lot about Dampier, other than, if you do some research on 17th century explorers, he comes up a lot. I found this book, which offers some context.
If you ever want to feel incredibly soft, read some books about European explorers of the 17th century. They're journals of deprivation and suffering. Half the time that deprivation and suffering is brought on by the ego and arrogance of the explorer, usually unwilling to listen to
"[I believed] no proposal for seeing any part of the world which I had never seen before could possibly come amiss." -- William Dampier
His own, more unyielding, philosophy was that “men as cannot comply with any custom or cannot endure hardships or hard fare … should endeavour to live at home for they are apt to make mountains of molehills.”
# The Cooking Gene
The Cooking Gene is about the influence that the enslavement of Africans by European settlers has had on foodways and history of the Old South. The Cooking Gene includes personal narratives, history, recipes, and folk songs. The recipes have African, Native American, and European roots as the author integrates his Jewish faith into African-American cooking. Twitty emphasizes the African flair that has been added to European and Native American ingredients by African American cooks. Additionally, he discusses plants used in cooking that are native to Africa such as sesame, okra, and sorghum.
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