There's a lot of money to be made in the Alternative Medicine industry. And for "alternative," be prepared to use the word "quack" in many cases. After all, if saliva is a tonic, then what's wrong with magnetic bracelets, iridology, homeopathy, and toad licking?
Come to think of it, what's wrong with boiling someone's head and turning it into a soup to cure psychiatric illness? Well, nothing unless it happens to be your head!
In the southwestern province of Sichuan, China, resident Lin Zongxiu heard that a sure fire way to cure her daughter's mental problems was to serve her some head stew, preferably as fresh as possible. So Zongxiu and her husband enlisted the help of an unwilling 76-year-old who happened to go by their house. They knocked him unconscious, decapitated him, and made head soup. They then fed their 25-year-old daughter a delicious, heaped-up helping of cooked pate - and that's really "pate," not "paté." Apparently they tossed in a little duck to add extra flavor - but no word on how willing the duck was.
Not surprisingly, the daughter failed to be cured and Zongxiu and her husband ended up in court and charged with murder - or is that "gastronomicide?" Lin was fortunate in that she was only charged with helping to hide evidence but the husband was sentenced to death but then given a two-year reprieve. If he avoids lopping off any more heads in over the next two years, he may be simply have life imprisonment.
Let's hope that this fad doesn't catch on too extensively in the West. Still, it would be interesting to see what the 30-minutes infomercial might look like!
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