The ox and donkey thing always reminds me of the story of Odysseus trying to get out of his promise to fight the Trojan war: he pretends he's mad, puts on a skullcap, hitches an ox and a donkey together and plows ten furrows and sows them with salt. Agammemnon proves he's sane by placing the infant Telemachus in the last furrow, so that Odysseus will have to run him over or turn the plow aside.

Given the symbolic hoo-hah already in that passage -- ten salted furrows for ten wasted years of war; the name Telemachus basically means "and then, we kick their asses!" at the end of the last furrow/year -- I think it's also interesting that it's exactly the same ill-suited hitch as in Jewish lore. (Though I think the Homeric sagas predate the writing down of the Bible, or anyway it's unlikely one of them influenced the other.)

Apparently some brands will use a linen/wool mixture as the lining in the lapels of suits

I've been reading a whole lot of early-mid 19th C. history, and linsey-woolsey is amazingly ubiquitous, as the general cloth middle-class and poor people (anyway, poor gentiles) wore. I finally realized that it was linsey- woolsey because cotton was still an expensive fabric, hard to gin and uncommonly cultivated, until mid-century. I have to imagine that the reason to combine the two is to get the strength, stretchiness, and waterproofing of wool without completely stifling yourself to death in the summer.

Or Jay-Z! Who occasionally refers to himself as "Hova", short for Jehova, no??? Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

Hahaha! Jay-Z is my god now!

Speaking of Jay-Z, I am randomly obsessed with this song "Lucifer" off the Black Album right now. ---WAIT. I didn't even realize the religious part there, too!

It's because an ox is so much stronger than a donkey, that hitching them to the same plow might lead to the donkey getting hurt.

Seems to me that there are a lot of "religious" laws that were created to make people/things safe, and they threw the God label on it to make people do it, i.e. I've heard that the prohibition against pork and shellfish was because people used to get sick eating those foods because they weren't cleaned properly (i.e. trichinosis), so they slapped a trayf label on it.

Seems to me that there are a lot of "religious" laws that were created to make people/things safe, and they threw the God label on it to make people do it

Yeah, that sounds about right. "OK, people, here's the safest way to do this." "Says who?!?" "Um... God! That's who!"

Linen's also fairly flimsy compared to either wool or cotton, so combining it with either helps to stretch out supplies of both.

It's also been suggested that the prohibition of pork was as much to help keep the ancient Hebrews as herders of sheep and goats, as pig-keeping in a town alters the way you set it up. Not to mention the eating-something-that-eats-trash aspect (which is also true of filter-feeders like shellfish).

Well... or God really DIDN'T want people getting sick from eating shellfish. OR shellfish are innately evil in ways we don't know about.

Which seems unlikely, but the more I read about shit we've fucked up because we thought we fully understood something we didn't, the more likely it sounds. Shellfish - evil! Linen - innately inimical to wool! Cats and dogs - lying down together! Why not?

Sort of how a lot of superstitions (bad luck to break a mirror, spilling salt, etc.) reflect the value/scarcity of the item in question.

"Stop messing around with that expensive, hard to replace and super fragile status symbol..."

t kid keeps playing

"or you'll get seven years bad luck!"

t backs away slowly

It's because an ox is so much stronger than a donkey, that hitching them to the same plow might lead to the donkey getting hurt.

Seems to me that there are a lot of "religious" laws that were created to make people/things safe, and they threw the God label on it to make people do it, i.e. I've heard that the prohibition against pork and shellfish was because people used to get sick eating those foods because they weren't cleaned properly (i.e. trichinosis), so they slapped a trayf label on it.

I'm trying to think why someone would think hitching a donkey and an ox to the same plow would be a good idea.

I'm trying to think why someone would think hitching a donkey and an ox to the same plow would be a good idea.

That probably is the next step after you make a bong out of a skull...

You've got one ox, you've got one donkey, why not? It's worth a shot, anyway?