Monday, April 13, 2009

Dante's Inferno Balls

In New Orleans last week, my students bought me a box of cinnamon candies called "Dante's Inferno Balls."
I'm not sure where to take this joke: "They taste like Hell?" "I'll bet Beatrice never saw Dante's Inferno Balls?" "Perhaps he over-dosed on Viagra?" The mind boggles with possibilities!
I do have this one question, though: Is Dante's Inferno really such a marketable name? Is there a "Jean de Meun Florists" out there in the world somewhere? Or perhaps a "Peter Abelard athletic supporter?" Or a "Julian of Norwich Framery?"
So, to review: Odd product, lame jokes, mind boggling, more lame jokes.

4 comments:

  1. "Peter Abelard athletic supporter"

    That has to be the funniest thing I've read in a long time...

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  2. UPDATE!

    I opened the box and we ate them in class. These are terrible, perhaps the worst candies I've ever eaten. In this case, they may be intended as a punishment for sin.

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  3. In his introduction to either The Dante Club or the Modern Library edition of the Longfellow translation of Dante's Inferno, Matthew Pearl writes about America's peculiar obsession with this part of Dante's Divine Comedy. Apparently, America has produced more editions and translations of this book than any other nation.

    I'll have to check the exact information when I get home from work.

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  4. Surely Peter Abelard balls would be more... singular?

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