Spaghetti, Pizza & Teleportation

[Rob Klein]

Regarding the "inaccuracy of Paul Halas' having Romans eating spaghetti and 
pizza:

Give the guy a break!!! This is a "COMIC" book!! I'm not the biggest fan of 
Paul Halas' stories - but I give him enough credit to realise that he will not 
lead the little kiddies astray by "teaching them false history"!  I would bet 
my farm (if I had one) that he was making a joke there.  Have Goscinny and 
Uderzzo been completely historically accurate all the time (to the detriment of 
their humour?)???  Were Halas' and Miguel's "Romans" actual HUMANS???  Perhaps 
in their universe (which includes Duckburg or Andeby)the "Romans"(animal 
people) DID eat 20th Century style spaghetti and pizza.  Who could refute that -
 as THEY define that universe!!!  Are we not teaching poor or misleading 
history by telling the kiddies that the Romans were actually "animal people"???

But, he may not have been SOOO-OOO-OOO inaccurate. I remember reading that the 
popular notion that Marco Polo first introduced noodles (pasta) into Italy 
after his return from China, was a fallacy.  Italy had known the wheat and 
barley noodles for at least several hundred years before 1300. Sorry, but I 
cannot remember the source of that information.  It stands to reason, however, 
as the slavs had a tradition of wheat noodles for several hundred years, and 
they had been eaten in Central Asia, Anatolia, and I believe, the Caucasus 
region.  Some populations from these areas were among the multi-national 
contingents of the Huns, Goths, Bulgars, Magyars, Avars, Cumans, and other 
Invaders. they were likely to have brought knowledge of such food forms inside 
the boundaries of the Roman Empire long before 1300. Whether or not the Huns or 
Goths brought them in during late Roman times is moot.  The Greek probably were 
eposed to such food from their trading partners in Cherson (Crimea) in 
classical Greek times.  And the Romans probably were exposed to it from the 
Greeks, or the Dacians (both their own subject peoples). With all the wheat 
growing areas in North Africa, Dacia, Bulgaria, Anatolia and the area north of 
the Crimea supplying Rome with wheat grain, and with the Roman fondness for 
vegetable and fish broth and sauces, I find it hard to imagine that they did 
not eat some form of noodles. The form of such noodles may well have been 
shorter and fatter than today's popular spaghetti.  In addition, they probably 
did not eat "Pizza" as most of us know it in its American form (smothered with 
cheese and tomato sauce.  But, I believe they must have had breadcrust pies 
topped with vegetables in a sauce (olive oil or fish based).  They may even 
have had a very thin crust style, similar to "Pizza Marinara"; and possibly a 
thick style, such as "Pizza Niceoise".  Of course, the tomato was unknown to 
the Romans (as it was native to the Western Hemisphere).

Regarding thr 9-page teleportation story from Carl Barks in 1961:

Carl Barks told me himself that a few of the WDC&S 9-pagers had been drawn by 
him as 10-pagers, and subsequently cut to 9 pages by the editors, without 
consulting him.  This was done late in the process, because of the new "Dell 
Trading Post" adverts.  He said that he produced a few 9-page stories on his 
own to avoid having them cut poorly, ruining the quality of the stories.  He 
did not tell me which story started the request by Western for him to produce 9-
pagers.  I remember reading something similar in Mike Barrier's book and "The 
Carl Barks Library" regarding this matter.  

Sorry for being so windy on an off-topic matter, but it is a very interesting 
question.  - Hail Caesar! - Rob
Klein

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