Jesus Christ: The Last Supper

"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19b). And He took wine and shared with them. He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20).

As Jesus sat with is disciples for the last time, a meal was served. More than likely this was a Passover Seder meal observance.

Wine and unleavened bread (bread made without yeast) was served, but at a bare bones minimum at least the following was consumed.

Matzoh - unleavened bread.
Wine - Maror and Chazeret
Various bitter herbs and vegetables - e.g.; lettuce, endive, pepper grass, and/or watercress.
Karpas - a vegetable dipped in salt water and vinegar.
Z'roar - roasted lamb shank.

Commemoration of the Last Supper did not end with the death of the twelve disciples however. When Jesus said that He wanted them to do it to remember Him, it was a message to us also. Jesus desired that His followers continue to have a commemoration of the Lord's Supper to remind us of Christ's sacrificial death for our sins. It was given as a time to give thanks to God for sending Christ to die in our place. In Matthew 26:29 we read Jesus' words to us where He clearly included us in this remembrance command and He gave us a powerful promise for our future. "I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."

Cleopatra's Last Meal...

Cleopatra VII Philopator. Queen of Egypt.
She was living in denial, because... Well she was literally
living off de Nile. De Nile river (denial). Large river that runs through Egypt. Get it?
Er, okay.
Cleopatra was one of the most well known rulers of Egypt. There were many queens of Egypt, but the only one that stands out to this day is Cleopatra.
As powerful women rise to power, Cleopatra certainly knew how the game was played, and played it well.
She co-ruled Egypt with her father Ptolemy XII Auletes.
Just to show you that her lust for power knew no bounds, after her father's passing she ruled with her brother/husband Ptolemy XIV. After Ptolemy's passing, she then ruled with her son Caesarion.
Ever moving up, she eyed the Roman empire. Constantly expanding, she consummated a relationship with Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. However, a little group led by Brutus nixed that deal and Cleopatra soon aligned with Mark Antony, with whom she produced twins. She later married Mark Antony and gave birth to another son.
With the Roman empire's baking you'd think her grip on Egypt would be unquestionable. However Antony's rival and Caesar's legal heir, Octavian, brought the might of Rome against Egypt. Unable to stand against the might of the Roman navy. Egypt was swept up by the empire. Antony committed suicide and Cleopatra followed after him.

She enjoyed one last deadly meal. It was

Figs

Not your run of the mill figs. These figs had the secret surprise of a deadly asp hiding in the bottom of the bowl. You know what they say about figs? You just can't eat one. Reaching deeper into the bottom of the bowl for the next fig was her last, and thus ended a dynasty.

Mitsugoro Bando VIII Last Meal...

I say Mitsugoro Bando VIII and you say____.

Don't know who Bando is? Here in the United States, you'd get blank stares, but in Japan, Bando is, or was a living national treasure.
Mitsugoro was a Kabuki actor. Kabuki, is a form of traditional Japanese theater.
He was considered the Marlon Brando of Kabuki theater.

Alas, Mitsugoro liked to tempt fate, and fate he surely tempted. He went out to dinner with some friends January 1975. The dish was a memorable one, not only for it was his last, but for the very nature of the dish.

His last meal was:

Fugu liver - Liver from Puffer fish.

Fugu is highly toxic. The fish contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in the internal organs, especially the liver and the ovaries, but also in the skin and the testicles. It is perhaps for this reason that Fugu is considered a delicacy in Japan. Japanese chefs have to specially train to prepare for this dish for 2-3 years, and even then they have to take a series of test before they are licensed Fugu chefs.
The test consists of a written test, a fish identification test, and a practical test of preparing fugu and then eating it. Of course you'd fail the final exam after eating an ill prepared Fugu liver, wouldn't you.
Unfortunately for Mistsugoro, he just didn't eat one servering of Fugu liver, but four. Not one spin at Russian roulette, but four go's at it. Poor fella was just begging to die.

Jean-Claude Paul's Last Meal...

All I have to say is don't mess with Jean-Claude Paul's wife.
Man, is she a killer. . . Literally!
Here's the deal.
Jean-Claude was an Haitian army colonel under Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Under Baby Doc's regime, things were brutal under Haiti's political system. It was only when Baby Doc fled the country in 1986 that Haiti underwent a number of coup before Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president, and even then there were a number of military coup d'etat's he had to deal with. Old Jean-Claude of course needed to fund such actions as well as setup some wealth for himself. Jean-Claude, not happy with Haitian army pay decided to help facilitate cocaine shipments from Columbia, through Haiti into the United States. The payoff was about $40 million dollars in trafficking. Unwilling to share in the profits, Mrs. Paul felt a little slighted and decided that perhaps she should just off her husband and take the $40 million for herself.
She treated to Jean-Claude to a special meal to help things along.

Jean-Claude's last meal was:

Soup Joumou (pumpkin soup)

The soup was poisoned and old Jean-Claude was cocaine trafficking no more.

Last Meal Of The 1,000th Person Executed In US Since Reinstatement Of Capital Punishment

Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed December 2nd 2005 by lethal injection.
Vietnam War vet and convicted murder, he became the 1000th person to be executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstatated the death pentaly in 1976.
Unfortunately for Boyd, he didn't want to be remembered in life as Mr. 1000. Hopes of clemency from the Govenor never materialized.

In life as in death, we all get a last meal. Boyd was a meat and potato man for sure.

His last meal was:

New York strip steak

A baked potato with sour cream

Salad with ranch dressing

Cola

He got no dessert.
Should have left room for jello though.

Thanksgiving...

Here at Your Last Meal, we talk about the last meals of the famous, not so famous and the convicted. However for every last meal, there is a first meal. The theme this week is Thanksgiving.

There was a first Thanksgiving. Edward Winslow, who was a leader of the pilgrim colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave this account of the first Thanksgiving.

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, Many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

The feast went on for 3 days and they had a guest of 90 indians from the local area.

They ate:

Vensison provided by the Indians

Duck

Goose

Turkey

Swan.

Face it. Without the Indians help, the colonies would have had a hard time adjusting to the new land they were living in. It is on this note, that those colonist were thankful for the help. The question I ask of the dear readers of Your Last Meal is, what are you thankful for?

Allen Ginsberg's Last Meal...

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American Beat poet.
He is best known for Howl a long poem about consumer society's negative human values.
With a classic opening line "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness", Howl became scandalous and was actually banned due to for obscenity. However the piece stood on it's own through 1st Amendment Rights.
Ginsberg hung out with the likes of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and John Clellon Holmes and other greats of the Beat generation. Thus gave birth to the Hippie generation, and hell it all went downhill from there. Hell, even the FBI put him on the watch list as a major security threat. A threat from what I'll never know. Perhaps the Man or the Establishment that beats us down everyday...you dig?

Ginsberg ran into some health issues during the late nineties. Really wasn't good news as the diagnosis was liver cancer. He died on April 5th, 1997. Before he died, he had one last meal (don't we all?)

It was:

Fish Chowder.

He never finished the meal, and the remnants of the meal are actually frozen in the interests of an Ginsberg museum sometime in the near future.

Snap your fingers for approval.