1921

Lard From Live Pigs

The Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung reported that a German farmer had developed a method of obtaining lard from live pigs by operating on the pigs to remove the rashers, then bandaging the pigs up and letting them heal. The operation could be repeated three times a year and was made possible by the use of novocaine. The story was subsequently widely reprinted by American and British papers. Articles expressed admiration at the Teutonic efficiency of the technique, which could solve an important food problem, but they simultaneously voiced concerns about the roughness of the method on the animal. It was only a full year later that an English paper realized that the town of "Schleichegrieben," where this inventive German farmer supposedly lived,

a) did not exist, and

b) meant "sneaking bacon" in translation.