A quick story involving vegemite...

[msfledermaus]

...When I lived in Montana, 4 blocks from the peacock farm where I was involved in the Mysterious Cow-Paisley event of 1994, (but that's another story) I had a pal named Stig. Stig was an expatriate Australian from Sydney, who would amaze and revolt us with Things He'd Eaten..(Fried eggs and beets in hamburgers, etcetra...and I fed him gefilte fish once and he kept a most stoic face as he chewed and chewed and chewed.) One day, on a day that was about as hot as this one, I came over to visit and he offered me some vegemite on toast. (He'd explained the concept--you ate it to get salts and b vitamins in your body when it was very hot.) He very kindly warned me that it was *extremely* salty.

So of course after examining and poking the grey-brown sludge suspiciously, I took a *big* bite...I remember thinking, 'Hey, this isn't bad-OWWOWACKSALTYYYHUAAAAAGAGGGGWATTTTTTTTERRRRRR!!!" I ran to the sink and gulped no less than 4 big glasses of water, one right after the other, while Stig clutched his stomach and laughed hysterically...

I got even. I had a friend feed Stig lutefisk.

He moved back to Sydney after I came home to Minneapolis. I miss him and his damned vegemite to this day.