A Passion for Pigs' Feet?

On this day in 1793, King Louis XVI was executed in Paris. The year before, he had been arrested by revolutionaries in the town of Varennes.  But a leader of the uprising spread the false tale that the king had been captured in the Sainte-Menehould because Louis wanted to eat pigs' feet, a dish for which this village was renowned.  However, the story was believable because of the monarch's gluttonous appetite.

Gilmore's Departing Dinner

On this day in 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was shot by a firing squad in Utah, becoming the first person executed in the U.S. after a Supreme Court ruling that upheld death penalty statutes. Gilmore gained notoriety by insisting that his death sentence be carried out with no delay.  The night before he was executed, Gilmore was served his final meal: a steak, potatoes, milk, coffee and a six-pack of beer.  He reportedly consumed only the milk and coffee.

Pork Got Punched from Ali's Diet

On this day in 1976, filming of the movie "Rocky" began. Sylvester Stallone was the flick's leading actor, portraying a fictional Philadelphia boxer named Rocky Balboa.  Yet the movie was inspired by a real-life boxing match that occurred in 1975 between heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and a virtually unknown fighter by the name of Chuck Wepner.

Do you have an appetite for boxing?  Then consider some of the strange things that a few famous boxers ate:

* When Joe Louis was living in Chicago, his trainer would take him to the city's stockyards, where the boxer drank blood fresh from the slaughterhouse.

* Early in his boxing career, Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) converted to Islam.  A Muslim mentor recalled that Ali had no problem adjusting to the dietary rules of his new religious. "We used to eat together at the Famous Chef Cafe," said Abdul Rahaman. "And when I first sat down with Cassius, no one had taught him about not eating pork. But it wasn't hard to get him to change."

* Robert De Niro was an actor, not a boxer, but he played a prize-fighter in the highly acclaimed 1980 movie "Raging Bull".  De Niro packed on at least 50 pounds in order to portray the boxer Jake LaMotta.  To gain the weight, De Niro said he ate "three square meals a day . . . y'know, pancakes, milk, beer."

Clemente's Fried Chicken Episode

On this day in 1972, baseball star Roberto Clemente died after the plane in which he was traveling crashed.  Clemente had been destined for Nicaragua, seeking to bring food and other relief supplies to survivors of an earthquake.

Our book includes a strange story involving Clemente and food.  In 1969, while in San Diego for a ballgame, the outfielder left a restaurant with a box of takeout fried chicken when a carload of men approached and ordered him into the vehicle at gunpoint.  The men drove him to an isolated part of the city, demanded he strip down to his underwear and then took his All-Star ring and wallet.

Clemente pleaded for his life and finally told the men who he was.  The bandits then allowed Clemente to leave the car with his clothes and personal items, and then drove away.  Moments later, Clemente heard the same car approaching at a high speed and feared that the gunmen might have decided to kill him after all.  But they were only returning his box of chicken.

Christmas Vittles

Neither turkey nor ham highlighted the Christmas dinner that Flannery O'Connor ate in December 1956. The acclaimed author and Georgia native wrote to a friend that "for Christmas I demanded and got meatballs and turnip greens."