Is there such a thing as cow tipping? I have two friends, both sons of farmers. One says it can be done and is great sport. The other says no way. Do cows sleep standing up? Can they be tipped? I suppose this will take some late-night research.
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I recently discussed the fine points of cow tipping with a reformed tipper named Robin, who had done it (once) as a student. Robin attended Albion College in Michigan, a school so snooty it’s said the students read The Preppie Handbook without realizing it was satirical. Despite their pretensions, however, Albionians were mad for cow tipping.
The usual modus operandi, Robin told me, was to get tanked at some frat party and then drive out with a half dozen of your most brainless friends to some nearby farmer’s field. While the rest of the group watched from a safe distance, the two most daring lunatics took off their shoes, climbed over the fence, snuck up on a dozing cow, pushed, and then ran like hell.
You thought when they said “iron added” they were kidding? Different iron compounds may be used in different products and the particles may be of different sizes, all of which affects how “biologically available” the stuff is. But yes, when a product says “iron fortified,” that often means they put iron filings into it–tiny ones, let me hasten to add, on the order of a few dozen microns in diameter. The particles can range from straight powdered iron (“reduced iron”) to compounds such as ferrous sulfate and ferric phosphate. The stuff is “harmless and assimilable,” it says here, and your body definitely needs it. Iron deficiency is very common in the U.S., and at one time the Food and Drug Administration even considered asking that higher levels of iron be added to more foods. (The plan died because of fears that more iron might trigger certain rare diseases.) Just don’t try walking through an airport metal detector after eating your cornflakes. For more information on iron and other food additives, read The Complete Eater’s Digest and Nutrition Scoreboard by Michael Jacobson (1985).
