The strange case of the fire eating grandma
It was a special event : taken on a trip to see the new raven -haired great granddaughter and attend a party for her two year old lively brother . After viewing the baby and waiting for others to arrive , and the party to start , this blogger decided to slip away on foot for a short time to peruse nearby op shops in the hunt for offbeat books and oddities to feed his obsession .
Excuse the pun, it proved to be a Freudian slip in more ways than one . Plucked from a large array of books, magazines and DVDs in a Vinnies store was none other than Sigmund Freud's own autobiographical study, published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, at the Hogarth Press , London , and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis , in l936. It bore the trade sticker of Dymock's Book Arcade , Sydney , and the name of a previous owner , O. Lansley .
The Penguin Century of Australian Stories , edited by Carmel Bird , with an introduction by Kerryn Goldsworthy ,733pp, dustjacket , Viking Press , 2000 , full of interesting yarns and author info , including an old friend , the late Xavier Herbert , was bought . Surprisingly , it included a story entitled 'LIFE PROBABLY SAVED BY IMBECILE DWARF', by novelist and academic Gail Jones ,the scenario Sigmund Freud in hospital in Vienna suffering from cancer . Jones had won the Steele Rudd Award.
With these , and a few other finds, shuffled back to the house for the birthday party, which included a barbecue . Grandmother was given some powerful North Queensland chilli sauce , named Scorpion Sting , and warned that it was extremely hot . To demonstrate its potency, grandson ate a tiny amount and immediately his face went red , his eyes and nose watered . Regardless of repeated verbal warning and the evidence of its effect on the grandson , she downed her spoonful in one hit ,without any fiery reaction . Freud would probably have diagnosed it as a case of mind over matter . She did, however, mix it with a piece of sausage and some sauerkraut .
