Odd Book Cover

I thought I had read it all until I picked up my local newspaper the other day. What surprised me was an article on a certain unusual book bind. It seems that a number of the libraries here and in other countries have books that were bound in human skin! And also, as a testimony to my ignorance, doing that was not uncommon centuries ago. Seems odd, huh? In fact, the first thing that struck me as I read this was that it was something out of the Nazi era, when Nazi perversions included making lampshades, car seats , painting canvases and other thing out of the skin of concentration camp interns. But the explanation for it is interesting (well, that's the purpose of writing to you about this today..in the hope it is).
At the time, the best libraries belonged to private collectors. Some of them were doctors who had access to skin from amputated body parts and patients whose bodies had gone unclaimed. In other instances, wealthy collectors got the skin from executed criminals, medical schools and from people who died in the "poor house". And, ironically, today's big libraries typically keep those books in their rare collections and do not allow them to circulate ( thus, part of the reason I was ignorant of this), But scholars do have access, and often use it.
The libraries today acquired those volumes as donations or as part of collections they purchased. And this practice seems to have been acceptable in every culture. There are even copies of the Koran that were bound in skin. I'll spare you the description of what that skin bound book would look and feel like, but it's interesting to note they main reason this was done. The article says it was because there was some tie in to the actual book content itself.. It was felt an honor for a physician to bind a book on medical research with the skin of a patient who had some connection to that research, even if it was as remote as having had the affliction that was researched. Most of the time, the person never knew his skin was to be used.
I just hope you don't want to skin me for mention this topic Today. Some ratty news for you now. In one of my favorite cities, Jakarta, there is dissent among those street food vendors who are known for cooking tasty and inexpensive treats for the masses. But a number of those vendors are angry and protesting in front of a Jakarta TV station that reported on its news broadcast allegations that some of the street food sellers are using rat to make meatballs (bakso) for their broth. On December 31st Trans TV showed a report with an interview of one of the venders.
He claimed that he had used rat meat and that many other of his colleagues did the same. "We said it was true and backed up our findings in the field. We have a duty to inform our viewers about the facts., " said a spokesperson for trans TV. The vendors say their sales have plummeted since the reports and that it takes a rat to allege falsely suck things. Too, this rat scare comes on the heels of media reports that dangerous amounts of formaldehyde were being used to preserve fish, noodles and bean curd.
I don't even want to know what is used to preserve those rat balls. Bakso, anyone?