Thursday's Deep Thought

Artichokes could, possibly, be the least user friendly vegetable. Who first looked at the blossom of the thistle plant and thought "what the heck, I'll hack off most of the outside of this and eat whatever is inside..."?

They are inordinately pretty, though. I would, almost rather have them whole as a centerpiece than go to the work of actually preparing them. But maybe that is just being lazy...