Word: potatoes
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When conquistadors subjugated Peru in 1534, the Inca civilization was only their first victim. Spain too would eventually pay a heavy price. The Spaniards discovered a veritable mountain of silver at Potosí, but it was only thanks to the potato - domesticated in Peru's uplands some 8,000 years earlier - that Spanish slave drivers could feed the army of conscripted miners they deployed to dig up the silver. As John Reader recounts in Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History, the flood of bullion proved more than the Old World could absorb. The unintended result: inflation that shredded Europe...
...when the humble tuber followed the silver to Europe is unclear, but by the early 17th century the stage was set there for a vast expansionary phase in the potato's history. Despite being regularly denounced from pulpits because it was not mentioned in the Bible, this imported esculent (foodstuff) soon became a peasant favorite. Not only did it yield four times more calories per acre than grain, making it an essential insurance policy against famine; it also, as an underground crop, was less likely than stored grain to be looted by armies living off the land in those...
...these gifts reflect not only taste and affection "but your degree of commitment as well." Experts argue over subtexts: Is giving lingerie a turn-on or just tacky? Restaurants sweeten the menu and hike the prices; Christian websites offer valentine messages from God. You can buy a heart-shaped potato on eBay. It comes...
...Five years ago, the local McDonald's menu listed french fries as simply "potato" or Filet-o-Fish as "fish hamburgers"; most are items now ordered by more familiar names and some, like the 100-yen cheese burger and sandwiches with steamed buns, are popular because they are cheap or soft. "Toasted buns are too hard for them," says manager Hayato Akasako. "They like the Filet-o-Fish and the shrimp burger." Akasako also says the elderly don't shy from trying new things. Upon ordering, some of them now present downloaded electronic coupons on the screens of their mobile...
...farther. Just because we can." Actually, Azmi was gone only overnight. He couldn't find any gas in el-Arish, so he turned back. El-Arish's shops had also been picked clean by Gaza's hordes, so Azmi could find no chocolate either, just four big bags of potato chips and a couple of Cokes. No regrets, says Azmi. "Driving back, eating snacks, with the car window down and the desert breeze of Sinai on my face?what can I say? We were happy. This was freedom...