1000 AD

There's a great thread at Marginal Revolution going on right now. The premise:

I wanted to ask for survival tips in case I am unexpectedly transported to a random location in Europe (say for instance current France/Benelux/Germany) in the year 1000 AD (plus or minus 200 years). I assume that such transportation would leave me with what I am wearing, what I know, and nothing else. Any advice would help.

As I note in the comments, I'd head for the nearest kitchen. Modern kitchen technique, even dumbed down due to lack of equipment, is so superior to what was available in 1000 AD that you could possibly get yourself installed as a sort of mascot in some noble's courtly apparatus.

Some people are assuming that because a modern professor (which is what the original questioner is) is more intelligent and highly educated than even a medieval intellectual, he'd be able to make his way into the church. The problem from an immediate survival perspective is that the modern marketing professor isn't more educated at the only things that matter from the church's perspective - Latin and religion. Unless you're supremely handy with tools, I don't think you'll be able to make anything modern to sell either. I think being a sort of travelling doctor might work, since you at least know about germs, but I think this sort of underestimates the problem of being a person with no place in a feudal world which is governed by a hierarchy in which everyone has their place.

Frankly, I think you'd do very well to end up as a serf, and would most likely die very soon. A great thought experiment, though.

UPDATE: Obviously, all bets are off if you happen to be a modern expert in, say, metallurgy. Medievals weren't dumb. If some guy showed up with steel, it wouldn't take long for someone to notice them.