""Vegemite", Captain Haddock, and Hergé Trivia!" Topic

"Poor little vegemite "

Name calling, but looks like a Haddockism to me…

This is from another topic in which the poster is examining some dialog from another post.

I don't recall Captain Haddock ever using this term – can anyone quote a book in which it's used?

Trivia

Prize: Bragging Rights

Please feel free to add your own questions

1. What is Captain Haddock's first name?

2. How was the pen name "Hergé" derived?

It's not a Haddockism as such. It's in the style of the good captain. Which is kind of the TMP Haddockism definition, i.e. an insult that really doesn't mean anything because it is so random and bizarre.

1) Archibald.
2)Uh, dunno. I'll get back to you.

1. Archibald
2. Got me there…

Damn you Polynikes!

Wallaces 1832 dictionary defines Vegemite as closely linked with Sodomite, but involving vegetables……..

Kewl, that was quick for Archibald. That was in the Picaros, I think, right? Where he whacked his head and Tintin was asking him questions?

The second one is one of those "oh yeahs"

So be careful when ordering a Vegemite sandwich

its an australianism.

Basicly there is a food spread here that is toxic to non australians called vegemite. They have used the same jingle in their adverts for many a year

We're happy little Vegemites
As bright as bright can be.
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch, and tea.
Our mother says we're growing
stronger every single week.
Because we love our Vegemite.
We all adore our Vegemite.
It puts a rose in every cheek!

So to say someone is not a happy little vegemite or a poor little vegemite is slang for being upset about something or unhappy/sad.

For example if your wee nipper stacks his big wheel and scrapes his knee you might say "Och ye poor little vegemite did ya come a buster?"

So while strictly not a haddockism its still firmly in the mostly harmless bracket.

Got it. Georges Remi. Reversed his initials to R.G. for his pen-name.

"Hergé" is how you pronounce those initials if you're of Walloonish extraction.

Thanks "Tintin: Hergé and his creation", by Harry Thompson.

It's on the shelf here by my computer.

2. it's the initials of the author's real name Georges Rémi

Doesn't anyone remember Men at Work?

He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich.

Wallaces 1832 dictionary defines Vegemite as closely linked with Sodomite, but involving vegetables……..

Bloody foreigners! Its food ye damm fools, Just cus your not designed to digest it dont mean its for sticking up your bottoms! As a side note a few people from over there get told its to be smeared on the body as a drop bear repellent. Always good for laugh when your showing foreign jonny the countryside with a camping trip.

Whatever vegemite is, it can;t be half as bad as canned asparagus or Lima beans.

Thanks "Tintin: Hergé and his creation", by Harry Thompson.

Yep, that's where I got the info. A great book, well worth reading for any Tintin fan.

Poly and Sgt Perry get the BRs for that,

Poly and Frederik for the first…

I think my favourite book was the Calculus affair – it was the first one I read, so that may have had something to do with it.

In the 70s, when my friends and I were undergoing an Airfix/Fujimi/ESCI arms race, my "country" name was Scoria and the symbol for the Scorian Legions was a white circle with a red border with a yellow Kurvi-Tasch moustache in the white circle. Some of my Desert painted Matildas and some other vehicles still sport this. In fact, in the main picture here link
there is an Airfix Churchill, front row 3rd tank from the left with a barely visible "34" on the front of the turret. You can just barely make out this Scorian roundel on the left side of the turret…

Whatever vegemite is, it can;t be half as bad as canned asparagus or Lima beans.

Clearly this man was never exposed to the Black Mass.

The song from where the vegemite line comes was actually written by a Scot

It figures.

Vegemite is so toxic, I remember clear as day the time I was given some by friends in college. That was over 20 years ago.

Some Rhodesian guys my cousin hung out with in college received a package from home, and inside was a dark jar of the magical substance. I asked to try some, as all the Rhodesian fellows were smearing it on crackers and falling into a form of ecstatic rapture.

After hearing how stupid it would be to waste even half a spoonful on a yank I was finally given one of the smeared crackers. I woke up on the floor, retching my guts out.

Ever open a Fleischmans Yeast packet? Eat a big spoonful. Still not as bad as vegemite but you are getting close – I believe it is a yeast extract.

Pass me the Lima Beans please.
Neal

Vegemite is Marmite made by people who have heard about it but never seen it.

It's foul. Marmite is delicious, but give me chronic heartburn.

"vegemite"

Toxic?, why?, how does it taste?, can it mixed with some kind of meat?. Seems interesting enough to give it a try. :^)

The worst I've ever had is some kind of Thailand condiment that gave me a Thai boxer who ate it in buckets, felt like the hell in the throat, now I understand why they fight that way.

Marmite is among the most gawdawful things I've ever eaten, and I grew up on the Mexican border.

Entirely a matter of culture and taste. Acquired tastes, at that.

"Marmite is among the most gawdawful things I've ever eaten"

How awful?. Is it too strong or just tastes bad?.

Vegemite, Marmite, Promite etc are all variants on a theme. They're a yeast extract / by-product usually eaten by spreading (very thinly!!!) over (sometimes buttered) bread. Can't stand them myself – they're just basically salty and strong-flavoured, not really pleasant at all, a bit like eating beef stock raw, or spooning up tamarind paste (an Asian ingredient that's like condensed salt with a bit of a "dark brown sauce flavour" thrown in for good measure).

Hard to describe, try some one time! And then never again :)

Vegemite is an acquired taste. I choked on my first taste years ago, as a schoolboy in Australia, but grew to like the primitive salt-vitamin flavor. My fellow Yanks should give it another try.

The Romans had a ketchup equivalent made from rotting fish. True. So, it is probably a culture thing. My nephew tells me that haggis tastes like vomit, so there is another one, too.

Thanks Tyrant.

Hope I can taste it some time, but I'll do it near a swimming pool full of water just in case. :^)

Being a Yank with an Aussie wife, I can attest that you must be born eating the stuff to have any sort of taste for it. Like Marmite, Vegemite tastes like salt and petroleum jelly. It is only good for spiking up your mohawk or fixing that squeak in the door hinge. We always have a 32 ounce-sized jar in our home.

To consume this fowl substance, one must burn to fine pieces of bread in a toaster, smother said toast with a quarter stick of butter, then apply a thin layer of the yeast confection. Lots of butter is key, and make sure you eat the bread while it's still warm.

BTW – I will concede to the folks Down Under that Vegemite is far superior to the English Marmite in both taste and texture.

Palfox

I will send you a tiny jar if you really must do yourself an injury. You must keep in mind you are just not equipped to deal with it though. These people are not jokeing about what happens when non aussies eat it. Chances are you will blister the roof of your mouth as well as be in extreme pain.

Worst of all you will be left with almost a full jar that will never ever go off cus it keeps for several decades just fine. It will stare out of the cupboard mocking you forever more making you feel very unmacho.

Then again its the perfect thing to spring on your friends when they roll back to yours after a night at the pub to cop a free feed. To have them experience the same pain and humiliation you will go through will make it all worth while. Especially if you show them a pic of a 3 year old gobbling it up with ghusto.

Palafox, look for an aussie tourist. Many carry a jar of vegemite just for the look on the faces of foreigners when they taste it.

As for it being an acquired taste, Australian babies usually love it the first time they taste it, so go figure. I have been told that American food in general is sweeter, as a lot of things contain more sugar. This may be the reason that a salty, savoury food does not go down well.

Oh, and real Aussies lay it on thick!

Cheers, Squash

I don't understand all the retching; vegemite is just plain bland; marmite all the way…. :-)

its cus they add something to marmite to wimpify it down. Its not going to put hairs on your chest like vegemite does.

Oh and Plafox don't you listen to these crooks telling you spread it thin with lots of butter. When vegemite mixes with butter it causes the chemical reaction that makes it so toxic. More butter the hotter and more burning it gets. You want to survive this without burning your mouth out. 2.5mm to .5cm thin spread of vegemite evenly across the toast and a tiny amount of butter to get it 'cooking' anything else and you may drop dead.

John, the sauce you refer to is "Garum." I'm not a nutritional anthropologist, but I would bet it's the antecedent to Worcestershire sauce. Damn Romans ate garum on everything.

See also link

Just cus your not designed to digest it dont mean its for sticking up your bottoms!

one of the best qoutes recently aired on TMP – had to read it out to the whole office ;-)

That IS a good quote! Lets see if we can write a song around it!!

btw – Marmite is vile – except on twiglets – and even then the curry flavour ones are nicer.

"Whatever vegemite is, it can;t be half as bad as canned asparagus or Lima beans."

I have eaten the Lima Beans in the zillion year old Ham and Lima bean C-rations, I have eaten rice bugs (admittedly not sober), I have even eaten Haggis and clamored for more but nothing that walks, crawls, flies, swims or grows can top Vegemite for shear vile foulness. Cannabalism would seem a preferable alternative.

No one told me about "spread very thinly."

I'm an American. I grew up with peanut butter…

I discovered the spread thinly application too late with MArmite as well, having grown up with peanut butter.

You shouldn't spread it too thinly that you can see through it! However, it is definitely not like Peanut Butter.

However, it is definitely not like Peanut Butter

In the same sense that a hanging is not like a hangnail.

Well, admittedly, I walked into it.

Marmite physically resembles the stuff my mechanic uses to grease my car's engine, and it smells faintly of yeast and the sea.

When something SMELLS salty, that should tell you something right there. Clueless, I. Dipped my finger into the stuff and tasted it.

My wife tells me my reaction was quite comical.

No doubt yours would be, too, if you abruptly shoveled a tablespoon of salt into your mouth without realizing what was about to happen…

Friends, you know that feeling when everyone tells you "do not touch it, do not do it, do not… " then you need the urge to do it. If an Australian baby like it, then why not me? (Common sense sounds all alarms inside my brain, but who needs that wimp telling what's best for you?).

"When vegemite mixes with butter it causes the chemical reaction that makes it so toxic"

What does it have then?, petroleum?, uranium?.

"look for an aussie tourist"

I can identify English or American tourist, but how does an
Aussie tourist looks like?.

Well, he'll be carrying a big jar of Vegemite :)

BTW, I'm eating cheese and Marmite on crackers as I type this :)

CiC is on the way out the door to go to work but wanted to say that Vegemite can also be used in gravy for roasts. (and is very nice, yum)

But we are talking about _real_ gravy, not that packet stuff.

Also, when you're on a diet and you're really bored, sucking on a spoonfull of Vegemite makes the hunger go away.

How do you tell an Aussie tourist from a Yank or Brit?

Aussies are all very tall and they don't move their mouth while they talk. When they speak, every sentence ends on a high note as if they are asking a question.

With the exception of Vegemite, Aussies also know the difference from good and bad food. I cannot say the same for us Yanks or the Brits.

If they also carry their hats it will be really easy to identify them anyway.

I suppose the only sure way to identify an Aussie or Kiwi tourist is asking.

When I ws in the US I had people ask if I was English, and when I was in the UK I had people ask if I was American.