yam-ipidia

I love the wikipedia. Especially for the particularly random entries, like the one for yams.

I was merely looking for some nutritional information about my lunch when I discovered that "Yam tubers can grow up to 2.5 metres in length ... and weigh up to 70 kg (150 pounds)," and that "Yams of African species must be cooked to be safely eaten because various natural substances in raw yams can cause illness if consumed." I wonder how many people had to get sick and die from eating African yams before this conversation:

African Yam Eater 1: Oh, I have a great idea! Let's pound it and leach it and boil it before we eat it.
African Yam Eater 2: No way, man, I'm hungry for some yam now! Just pound it and leach it. Screw boiling it.

(next day)

African Yam Eater 1: Sorry about your husband, African Yam Eater 3. I told him we should have boiled it, but he was just too hungry.

And on the yam-ipidia, you can see pictures of big-ass yams! (which looked like a big pile of turds to me, until closer inspection proved me wrong. Thankfully)

Perhaps, though, I should have read this entry before eating lunch:

"In a 100g serving of yams, there are 30.5g of carbohydrates so they are ideal for weight gain." Oops.

But come on! I want to find me some purple yams so I can make this cake:

And the different types of yams? Abundant:

the white yam

the water yam, winged yam, and purple yam (all same yam)

the Chinese yam

the air potato (very different from air guitar)

the lesser yam (lesser than whom, I wonder)

the cush-cush yam

the bitter yam ("she is not prettier than I yam!")

And, surprisingly? Sweet potatos are not yams. (But they are what I had for lunch.)