In September 2005 Marianne Ways suggested to her friend Colleen AF Venable that it was time to move on from International Talk Like a Pirate Day to a different stock character, and the pair declared September 26 Talk Like a Lumberjack Day. The speaking premise was abandoned almost at once, and the day settled into eating pancakes and waffles with a large group of friends.
CHAPTER 01
Black tea strong enough to float an axe
Stewart Holbrook's history of the American lumberman gives the 19th century fare of New England and the Great Lakes as "salt pork, beans, bread and molasses, and tea, black tea strong enough to float an ax on."
The appetite behind that menu was not folklore. The physiologists J.V.G.A. Durnin and R. Passmore, working from research among woodsmen in eight European countries and Japan, calculated that chopping at a moderate 35 strokes a minute burns 10 calories a minute. Carrying and dragging logs cost 12.1 calories a minute, against 1.4 for a man at a desk writing an article.
