  2. Popeye’s mythic origin is fundamentally flawed. In his
youth, Fionn mac Cumhaill, the trickster hero of Irish folklore,
gained his powers by tasting the flesh of the bradan feasa, the
salmon of knowledge, which contained all the knowledge in the
world.  When Fionn mac Cumhaill burned his thumb cooking the
salmon and automatically stuck the burned thumb in his mouth,
the knowledge flowed from the salmon into Fionn.  After that,
Fionn mac Cumhaill knew everything and could access any
information he needed by sucking on his thumb.  Popeye, in his
old age, got his incredible toughness by staying up all night
below decks rubbing the head of Bernice the Wiffle Hen, a bird
with the power to bestow supernatural good luck on those who
touched her.  All the luck flowed out of the hen and into
Popeye, rendering the hen useless to would-be gambling kings
Castor Oyl and Ham Gravy and transforming Popeye into an
unstoppable demigod.  Later, as everyone knows, the story was
changed so that Popeye gained his strength fr