[meteorite-list] Mike Farmer Eats Moon & Mars Rocks!

From: Fries, Marc D <marc.d.fries_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:47:53 -0700
Message-ID: <C6AE20F9.AB5F%Marc.D.Fries_at_jpl.nasa.gov>

The gent who wrote the Red Mars trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson, wrote a short
appendix to one of the books in the series. The details are a little
sketchy to me now (been a while since I read them), but if I recall
correctly the appendix was titled, ?The First Recorded Instance of
Aerophagy? and was about him sitting on his rooftop looking at Mars while he
ate a small piece of a martian meteorite. I recall being stunned at the
time, but I wouldn't even blink at such a thing today.

Cheers,
MDF


On 8/16/09 3:18 PM, "Rob McCafferty" <rob_mccafferty at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Nothing unusual about this.
> My first ever meteorite was a 25mg piece of Dhofar 1084. Tasting it was one of
> the first things I did.
>
> I don't recal ever having tasted a martian though it is a distinct possibility
> and I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the experience.
>
> I can tell you that eucrite tastes like those cinder blocks that they use for
> making homes, the really big grey ones....with a little sprinkling of iron
> filings on top.
>
> You may be wondering how I know what cinder blocks or iron filings taste like
> but I also believe you're intelligent enough to also have guessed the answer.
>
> It's a wonder I'm still alive.
>
> Rob
>
> --- On Thu, 8/13/09, Leigh Anne DelRay <leighannedelray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Leigh Anne DelRay <leighannedelray at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Mike Farmer Eats Moon & Mars Rocks!
>> To: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>,
>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> Date: Thursday, August 13, 2009, 10:32 PM
>> Leigh Anne DelRay Snorts Mars
>> Rocks!!!!!
>>
>> The latest trend:
>>
>> http://www.callistodesigns.com/ebay/snortingmars.jpg
>>
>> Yes that was a real Mars rock, thanks to Mexico Doug!
>>
>>
>> Oh Yes! And I too, have tasted (although not eaten) a moon
>> Rock
>>
>> http://www.callistodesigns.com/ebay/licking-the-moon.jpg
>>
>> And yes that was a real Moon rock, thanks to Greg Hupe'.
>>
>>
>> Just a little something to be silly,
>> Leigh Anne
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 8:14 AM,
>> JoshuaTreeMuseum<joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/michael-farmer-meteorite-broker-
>>> 1278.php
>>>
>>> I too often chow down on these tasty morsels. ?Just
>> this morning I had a
>>> bowl ?of crunchy anorthosite cereal, though I hate
>> the way the plagioclase
>>> feldspar sticks between your teeth!
>>>
>>> Phil Whitmer
>>>
>>> Meet Michael Farmer, aka Meteorite Guy
>>> In the exclusive world of meteorite brokers, his rise
>> has been, well ...
>>> By Jay MacDonald
>>>
>>> Twelve years ago, a stock boy at Target purchased a
>> chunk of space debris at
>>> the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show that changed his life
>> forever.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> He has not only held pieces of the moon and Mars in
>> his hands -- he has
>>> tasted them.
>>>
>>> "I've eaten a piece of every moon rock and Mars rock
>> that I have purchased
>>> or found, just to say I did it," he chuckles. "We are
>> all made of space
>>> rock."
>>>
>>> Welcome to the out-of-this-world life of Michael
>> Farmer, aka Meteorite Guy,
>>> one of only about 20 professional meteorite brokers --
>> on this planet
>>> anyway.
>>>
>>> Building a rock-solid empire
>>> Farmer was a 25-year-old college student attending the
>> University of Arizona
>>> on the G.I. Bill, stocking shelves part time and
>> vaguely drifting toward a
>>> career with the CIA when he happened to wander into
>> the largest gem and
>>> mineral show on earth.
>>>
>>> "I bought a rock (meteorite) for $70 and got so
>> fascinated with it that it
>>> changed the course of my life," Farmer recalls. "When
>> I saw it, I thought,
>>> 'Wow, I'm holding a piece of outer space!'"
>>>
>>> Anxious to find more, he scoured the gem show site
>> until he met an old-timer
>>> who had a box of 40 meteorites hidden under the table.
>> His asking price:
>>> $4,000 for the box.
>>>
>>> "I had no money at the time, so I had to beg and
>> borrow to buy the box,"
>>> Farmer recalls. "When I started researching the
>> meteorites, I found that
>>> that they were from a very rare collection, and I
>> quadrupled my money on
>>> those stones in about 48 hours. That's when I realized
>> you could actually
>>> make money doing this."
>>>
>>> Within a year, Farmer had earned enough to make the
>> first of dozens of trips
>>> to Africa, initially focusing on the Sahara Desert.
>>>
>>> Why the desert? Prepare to be mentally humbled.
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> http://www.meteoritecentral.com
>>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>>>
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>
>
>
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Received on Sun 16 Aug 2009 11:47:53 PM PDT