Horseburgers!

So, the big news in Scotland lately is horseburgers!

Well, there's more to the story than that. Meat in a number of British supermarkets was found to contain either traces of horse meat; or, in some cases, was actually not contaminated with horse meat, but was actually completely horse meat, which isn't "contaminated" at all, but rather, entirely pure! It's causing a massive uproar, as one would expect.

Now, in all fairness, there are certain cultures - for example, semi-neighboring France - in which the consumption of horses is entirely normal. While enjoying the Wales/France rugby match last night at the home of CN Warden and CN Governor, we discussed the situation, and agreed that it's not so much an issue of consuming horse meat being disgusting; however, the idea that someone would buy what they thought was beef, and wind up with horse instead of cow, was completely unacceptable. We were all relieved, however, when we came to the conclusion that horse is probably halal. Apparently there's been a parallel case of pork found in halal products served to Muslims in Irish prisons, which led CN Warden to remark, "There are Muslims in Ireland?"

I took that photograph on Tuesday in a Tesco Express here in Aberdeen. For the record, I think the whole thing is sort of comical, and I'm really not bothered about whether I may or may not have accidentally consumed some horse meat. Or... Horsemeat? All of the stories and apology posters and such keep combining the two words. I always figured that they ought to be separate. For example, I don't say that I've eaten chickenmeat or cowmeat, I say I've had chicken, or beef, or venison, or whatever. I guess maybe they don't have a special name for meat that comes from a horse?

Just for the record, I'll appreciate it very much if my old buddy Sam-Wise does not correct me by stating what the name for horse meat is. I'm probably safe, though, because it's probably French, and Sam-Wise would never voluntarily speak French.