LEAD AND FED

I thought the following anecdotes might prove pertinent and amusing. The first relates to your excellent Comment on lead shot.

Last year, I required an x-ray of my lower torso, after which the conversation went thus:

“Have you ever been shot?” enquired the radiographer.

“No,” I replied.

“Have you any metal in your body?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but I shoot.” “Do you eat what you shoot?” “Yes.”

“That explains the small, spherical objects in your intestine.”

I had had pheasant the evening before and like the numerous bits of lead shot I have ingested over seven decades the pellets will have passed down the usual channels and come to rest in the septic tank in the garden. Ingested lead shot harmful to humans? Utter tosh!

The second anecdote relates to ‘lockdown’ imposed by HMG and, more strictly, by our four adult children.

To amuse ourselves my wife and I decided we would cook a different meal every evening. Armed with numerous recipe books we selected a recipe for each day of the week. Title and appropriate page number were recorded in the diary. For the past four weeks we have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy lots of exciting new menus plus the usual roasts, pan-fried and barbecued steak and homemade burgers and sausages. So what? I hear you say.

Well, apart from two hens that stopped laying, no beef, chicken, lamb or pork has featured, having been replaced with pheasant, mallard and venison. Natural, healthy, lean and free.

Ian Murray, Lisburn