Talk:Stone Soup

message: I concur with the others, I always remember it having the sort of "twist" at the end where the traveler robs everyone while they enjoy the soup. If I remember correctly, the idea is that the people were all angry at one another and refused to cooperate. Then the con man comes and tells them he has a magical stone to make soup for all of them despite their difficulties. He tastes the soup over and over again saying it would be improved by some carrots, salt, some potatoes, etc. Then as they all try it and hail him and his rock he takes not ony the money they give him but their personal belongings from the houses they have left with open doors to see what all this about stone soup is about.
Of course, this being a folk tale makes it so there isn't really one "right" version, and there are probably many. But if anyone can actually find these different versions it would be useful to add that bit. Russia Moore 21:05, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ending? 

message: Hey... Why do we care 'bout Kingsolver's essay? That's totally out of place in here!!!
: I agree...  The essay is not even about stone soup; it uses the concept as a (stretched) metaphor.  It should definitely be deleted or moved elsewhere.  I put in the appropriate merge template, for now.  Freederick 16:38, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The Kingsolver section is essentially an unsourced review of a work largely irrelevant to the article.  I flagged it as such.  If nobody steps forward to clean it up, I will delete this section soon. Freederick 11:03, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: What Kingsolver?

message: Another interpretation again of this story was used in a 1977 electronics magazine.  First was a straightforward telling of the story, but in a way more akin to The Emperor's New Clothes, where the travellers were demonstrating the power of their magic stone.  But of course they used a pot that still had food from a previous meal, used vegetables and seasoning to enhance the result, used a meaty bone to stir the soup etc.  Following this, the story was retold with the magic stone replaced with a microprocessor, which could do all sorts of wonderful things, but of course you also need a UART, a DMA controller, an interrupt controller, bus interface, bus driver, etc.
Reference: Stone Soup - A Modern Parable, Electronics Australia, Vol. 38, No. 11, February, 1977, pp. 80-81.
I think there are enough alternate variations on the main story, as mentioned in previous entries and here, that reference to them is worthwhile in the article.
Stephen.frede 07:59, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Emperor's New Clothes

message: There are two modern meanings to Stone Soup:
1. Soup made from leftovers.
2. Leftovers.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leftovers
I think a section should be added for these.
Shawncorey (talk) 23:56, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I say go for it. Just remember to cite your sources. :-) -FrankTobia (talk) 04:07, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Modern Meanings

message: There are almost no references at all. --Shruti14 talk • sign 01:12, 7 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  References 

message: While I assume the photo is supposed to be a harmless joke, I wonder if it's actually appropriate here. --gilgongo (talk) 13:13, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photo 

message: What does Chapter II of Tom Sawyer have to do with this page?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.252.10.163 (talk) 18:01, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links 

message: I am intrigued by the chemical and nutritional aspects of the soup stone.	
	In the 1950’s my grandmother was making stone soup on her farm in southern Ontario, Canada.  One weekend while we were visiting, she asked my father to go out and find her a new soup stone because her old one was worn out.  My father brought back a gray stone, about the size of two coffee mugs, for her and one for us as well.  I have often wondered how this stone made the soup taste better.  I have found recipes online that require a “gray stone” as well but no explanation of why the stone was needed.  
	A gray stone in this part of Ontario would be limestone.  My family had a hard time during the depression but I suspect that the stone did more than just hold the flavour for the next pot of soup.  First, the limestone would react with any acidity in the soup, such as from tomatoes, and this might be considered an improvement in the flavour.  Secondly, an improvement in the flavour might also result from any minerals that leached out of the stone while it was boiled.
	The leaching out of minerals has me concerned because some might be toxic.  I am thinking back to the recipes that I have seen online that do not tell you what kind of stone to use.  I suspect that limestone would be relatively safe but other rocks or minerals may not.
	Can anyone confirm my suspicions?  If I am right, then there is an historical basis for the stone soup stories.  Fred Blair, Oct. 19, 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.95.125.49 (talk) 11:15, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is There An Historical Basis for Stone Soup Tales? 

message: WHat Irony!!  On Wikipedia, one of the most vivd examples of cooperation making the whole greater than the sum of the parts, a fine cheerful story of success and abundance portrayed under the heading FRAUD !?!?  What mean-spirited misers wrote this gem of a commentary? and btw - let's change the "trick" word in the article.. this is wholly misrepresenting the story as far as I can see...   signed- the random observer  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.20.200.161 (talk) 16:57, 2 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Fraud?!

message: There's a parallel in Scots fiction:
Title: In Highland Harbours with Para Handy
Author: Neil Munro (1864-1930) (Pen Name of Hugh Foulis)
Project Gutenberg Australia
A VEGETARIAN EXPERIMENT
...
:"I kent a vegetarian yince," said Sunny Jim, "and he lived maist o' the time on chuckie soup."
:"Chucken soup?" repeated Dougie interrogatively.
:"No; chuckie soup. There was nae meat o' ony kind in't. A' ye needed was some vegetables, a pot o' hot water, and a parteecular kind o' chuckie-stane. It was fine and strengthenin'."
:"You would need good teeth for't, I'm thinkin'," remarked the Captain dubiously.
...
--195.137.93.171 (talk) 10:04, 27 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Para Handy Tales - chuckie-stane soup 

message: There's an obvious Stone Soup variant in O. Henry's "The Third Ingredient." Added the following text, which has been removed twice without explanation:
A variation on Stone Soup is presented in O. Henry's ironic 1909 short story "The Third Ingredient," which follows a lower-class woman who has lost her job. Bargaining with a rib of beef, she makes friends with a neighbor and a love interest who donate ingredients for a stew: "You can make oyster-soup without oysters ... but you can't make beef-stew without potatoes and onions."
Gundleus (talk) 17:45, 11 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Third Ingredient 

message: I was reverted for copyrighted material, (I don't think the story is copyrighted). Anyways I put the external link (I had also added) back in as I THINK that is okay. --Mark v1.0 (talk) 10:33, 22 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  My edit and External link 

message: Stone Soup was one of my first child hood memories and from my memories it most likely was the 1947 book by Marcia Brown. definitely three french coming back from war (i have vivid recollection of their red uniforms with a wide black "V" as accent and/or definition of the cut.) Read by Captain Kangaroo it definitely was not a story of greed at least not on the part of the soldiers.  
* As the trio approached the town the alarm went out. "Soldiers approaching" because the whole town thought that the soldiers wanted to take the best the town had. (a concept that Soldiers could pretty much do as they pleased was why we have one of our constitutional amendments). thus the whole town hurried to hide everything they had of value. If i remember correctly even the large soup pot was hidden to beg poverty of the visitors.
(I believe the interviews were done in the town square so one by one the villagers joined at the square but that may have been later and just a coincidence that last to interview had hidden a pot)
* as the soldiers talked to each villager their stories of poverty became bigger and bigger so after first talking to each... one soldier spied a large smooth stone and "remembered" how delicious the stone soup was that was served them in a foreign land (i don't believe that the exact war was mentioned) oh the soup was so delicious that the soldier even asked for the recipe, but alas, we don't even have a pot big enough to cook this huge stone....
thus began the talking out of the required ingredients
a pot filled with water, spices, carrots and cabbages, even meat from the butcher.
so all the soldiers new friends would not starve.
so if anything it was a lesson in sharing. with a "soldiers are kind" thrown in while the only greed shown was on the part of the villages who lied. --Qazwiz (talk) 20:27, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  A reminiscence  

message: Hi
My first ever attempt at posting, so I am just putting something into Talk 
but I wish to add a reference to a book written in 1829 - entitled the Collegians by George Griffin  - contains limestone soup story in chapter
CarregJim (talk) 10:23, 2 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Several regions' variations are listed, like axe and nail, but something overlooked is what the region for the stone variant is. I'm guessing Germany? SilverbackNet talk 04:40, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where is the "stone" variation from? 

message: I haven't edited in a few years so please excuse me if I do this incorrectly.
I thought everyone knew about the pleasant tale of a kind joke called stone soup.  And this page is chocked full of information.  Isn't it time to take the trivial warning off the top?
Jackdime (talk) 18:56, 6 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  okay page 

message: The story in song is sung by "Doctor hook" and by "Joey and Roary" it tells of a simple stone on a string that added flavors to a potato and water soup when a poor family only had potatoes. 
It was Written by: Shel Silverstein
Album: Belly Up!
Released: 1973
Lyrics provided by Musixmatch
The lyrics say: I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes 
 And the noodles and the marrowbone 
 But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes 
 And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone
Hanging from a string in my mama's kitchen, back in the hard time days 
 Was a little ol' stone 'bout the size of an apple, it was smooth and worn and grey 
 There wasn't much food in my mama's kitchen, so whenever things got tight 
 Mama boiled up some water, put in the stone and said "Let's have some soup tonight"
And I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes 
 And the noodles and the marrowbone 
 But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes 
 And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone
It had been in the family for a whole lotta years, so we knew it was a nourishing thing 
 And I remember mama, as she stirred it in the water, and we could all hear her sing 
 "Its a magical stone and as long as we got it, we'll never have a hungry night 
 Just add a little love to the wonderful soupstone and everything will be alright"
And I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes 
 And the noodles and the marrowbone 
 But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes 
 And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone
So it carried us all through the darkening days, 'til finally the sunshine came 
 And the soupstone started into gathering dust, but it hung there just the same 
 And ever since then the food's been plenty, but every now and then I find 
 That mama in the kitchen with the wonderful soupstone, drifts across my mind
And again I can taste the chicken and tomatoes 
 And the noodles and the marrowbone 
 But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes 
 And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone
And again I can taste the chicken and tomatoes 
 And the noodles and the marrowbone 
 But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes 
 And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone GuessWatIherd01 (talk) 10:35, 12 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  There is a song that tells a story about a "Soup Stone" 

message: 1 unwritten "Anasazi Indian" story
There are stone tools that have a story about them I recently heard from a seller of ancient American Indian artifacts: I asked what the "stone tools" were for.
His reply was: The Anasazi used these in a couple ways I know of.
 1. They were used to help shape pottery bowls, cups, etc.
 2. These scoria stones were used to scrape the subcutaneous tissue off hides, the holes trapped the tissue and then they were boiled in water to make a nutrient rich broth.
- hutchmar GuessWatIherd01 (talk) 10:40, 12 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  1 unwritten "Anasazi Indian" story that explains one use for certain stones