{"id":2979,"date":"2011-05-27T21:31:22","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T01:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=2979"},"modified":"2011-05-27T21:31:22","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T01:31:23","slug":"will-you-share-a-durian-with-me-at-balticon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/27\/will-you-share-a-durian-with-me-at-balticon\/","title":{"rendered":"Will you share a durian with me at Balticon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I arrive at Balticon tomorrow, I will be bearing two durian with me. If you&#8217;re not familiar with this exotic fruit, you should know that it is banned on public transportation and  in many hotels in Singapore, ingesting one has been described as like &#8220;eating custard in a sewer,&#8221; and I&#8217;ve read that,  &#8220;You can kill a person by throwing a durian at his head.  It&#8217;s just like a ball of spikes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at a boy and his durian. You&#8217;ll note that due to those lethal spikes, I&#8217;m holding it with a leather glove.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Durian.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2980\" title=\"Durian\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Durian-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Durian-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Durian.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What else do you need to know about durian? How about the fact that it has thrice defeated Andrew Zimmern, the host of<em> Bizarre Foods<\/em>, eater of everything from lamprey to bats to stinky tofu? Check out one of his failures below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"349\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/75vm9ik5pjo\" width=\"425\"><\/iframe><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Angry Bob, however, has put Zimmern to shame, in what has to be funniest video ever made about durian.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"349\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PUm0kssk_V4\" width=\"425\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If  Angry Bob&#8217;s statement that a durian &#8220;smells like ass&#8221; has you thinking, &#8220;wow, how can I can me some of that?&#8221;\u2014well, tomorrow at Balticon will be your lucky day.<\/p>\n<p>Why am I performing this public service? Last week at the Nebulas, I had dinner with John Kessel, Liza Groen Trombi, Paolo Bacigalupi, and John Joseph Adams at an Ethipoian restaurant, and since JJA isn&#8217;t much of an exotic eater, Paolo and I shared anecdotes of our oddest eating experiences, which (after I finished talking about the guinea pig)  led to a  lengthy discussion of durian. And since it turned out that both Paolo and I would be at Balticon, it seemed the perfect time to schedule a durian feast!<\/p>\n<p>So I now have two durian in the back of my Jeep, as well as bowls and spoons so you needn&#8217;t fear that you&#8217;ll burst into flame by touching it. And cups and water, too.  At 4:00, once I&#8217;m done moderating my 3:00 panel on &#8220;Name-Droppers&#8221; with  Ian Randal Strock, Thomas B. Talbot, Phil Giunta, Michael Swanwick, I&#8217;ll alert you all via <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/scottedelman\">Twitter<\/a>, and we will head outside to the parking lot, where the carnage will begin.<\/p>\n<p>Paolo wants me to crack the durian open in the con suite &#8230; but I fear the resulting aroma will wreak such havoc that the aftermath will dwarf  the famed Disclave sprinkler debacle.<\/p>\n<p>Though if there&#8217;s enough of a public outcry &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>See you all tomorrow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I arrive at Balticon tomorrow, I will be bearing two durian with me. If you&#8217;re not familiar with this exotic fruit, you should know that it is banned on public transportation and in many hotels in Singapore, ingesting one has been described as like &#8220;eating custard in a sewer,&#8221; and I&#8217;ve read that, &#8220;You [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,58,10],"class_list":["post-2979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-balticon","tag-conventions","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}