The elusive cone

December 4, 2011 • 2:29 pm

I love Turkey, one reason being the friendliness and good humor of the inhabitants. Both are on display here as a hapless Japanese tourist tries to buy ice cream in Istanbul.  To his credit, he proves a good sport:

Since modern religion loves metaphors, this could be one for “sophisticated” theology—except that after much elaborate trickery you never actually get the truth.  Scientists might be reminded of the NSF grant process, where you have to try a gazillion times before you get one.

via Wolf & Harrison

14 thoughts on “The elusive cone”

  3. I had a similar show last January in Antalia which is on the coast of Turkey when I tried to buy ice cream for my son. Turkish ice cream is much stickier than other ice creams which allows them to do these sort of tricks without the risk of the ice cream falling on the floor.

    1. I had to find out MORE

      Dondurma (Turkish, literally “freezing”) is the name given to ice cream in Turkey. Dondurma typically includes the ingredients milk, sugar, salep, and mastic. It is believed to originate from the Turkish region of Kahramanmaraş and hence also known as Maraş Ice Cream.

      Two qualities distinguish Turkish ice cream: texture and resistance to melting. Inclusion of the thickening agents salep, a flour made from the root of the Early Purple Orchid, and mastic, a resin, impart chewiness.

      The Kahramanmaraş region is known for maraş dondurması, a variety which contains distinctly more salep than usual; tough and sticky, it is sometimes eaten with a knife and fork

  4. I love Turkey.

    I concur, after one visit I brought a villa there as the place is a monument to Ataturk. Plus the sailing is better there due to the warm climate than my native Liverpool though I enjoy that to. The East/West parallels have to be seen to be believed. Despite the fact that it is largely an Islamic country you can argue politics and the existence of god or other favours of god in the coffee houses with impunity as the Turks love debating. I highly recommend that you visit Turkey if your budget allows it.

    1. Despite the fact that it is largely an Islamic country …..

      I thought it was part of the Turkish Constitution (as least the version drafted by Kemal Pasha) that Turkey would always be a secular country, even to the extent that no political party could have a religiously motivated agenda?

      1. It is a secular country but the current party in power would probably overturn that in a second (Justice and Development Party (AKP) of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.)if they could get away with it and they are certainly trying in the courts. Only this year they banned music from being played after midnight to the outcry of local businesses to no avail.Though you don’t go to Turkey for the nightlife unless you are into dancing boys or belly dances, not that there is anything wrong with that of course.

        The opposition party might be only 26% of the vote (secular Republican People’s Party (CHP)) but the are pretty vocal in calling out the AKP as being backward looking and the AKP has had a pretty humane response to what’s happening in Syria.

  5. Would the NSF process become more fair and less demeaning is they just dangled wads of cash out the window on the ends of ropes to let scientists squabble over them?

  6. Watch the Turkish belly dancer who comes up after the ice cream video ends. There must be some kind of analogy there for the allure and grace of a real scientific theory, as opposed to theology. Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but watch the video anyway.

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