Ongepotchket

I sometimes get to feeling like I have a pretty good vocabulary. Then I come upon a word that I have never even seen before let along having used it or knowing what it means. The latest word to add to my list is Ongepotchket.

Mitzi in The Poet's Funeral (by John M. Daniel) named her publishing company Ongepotchket. It took me half the book to figure out that the word had a meaning besides what it was given by the author. So after I finished reading the book, I Googled the word. In Yiddish it means decorating something up so much that it's ugly. The concept certainly isn't foreign to me. I think I've even been guilty of ongepotchket a few times in my life. Maybe my annual Christmas tree is an example. Certainly the typical "tourist purse" of the 60s and 70s was ongepotchket. Remember all the rhinestones, flowers, kittens and other trim that adorned those monstrosities? Incidentally, those gaudy items bring hefty prices at auctions these days.

Sometimes I hear a new word and for days I'll see that word pop up everywhere. I'll bet this will not be one of those times. What do you think?

Pokeweed

Mrs. Child (The Frugal American Housewife) has this to say about poke-root:

“Poke-root, boiled in water and mixed with a good quantity of molasses, set about the kitchen, the pantry, &c in large deep plates, will kill cockroaches in great numbers, and finally rid the house of them. The Indians say that poke-root boiled into a soft poultice is a cure for the bite of a snake. I have heard of a fine horse saved by it.”

If you ever have poke weed poke its way into your garden, you will learn to hate it. It’s a plant that looks pretty when it comes up. It’s so vital and fresh and green. It grows so luxuriantly and makes a fine-looking bush. Its flowers are ornamental and prolific, and the dark purple berries that follow are really lovely. What a nice bush it is! But appearances are deceiving. Once it gets a toehold, it’s exceptionally hard to get rid of. Round-up will seem to kill it, but given a couple of months, the weed will come up twice as strong. There’s a big patch on our neighbor’s farm and we all wish he would get rid of it....maybe with a flame thrower.

I did a little research on poke weed, enough to know that it’s very dangerous. Even “boiling in two waters” isn’t enough to remove all the toxins, and every year it claims some lives in the South where people still think it’s good to eat. The berries are attractive to children, and extremely deadly. If you have children, get rid of the pokeweed NOW. Even handling the plant is dangerous. Wear protective clothing and gloves when you’re pulling it up. (It has a tap root that is strong and long.)

On the other hand, in Wikipedia I learned some interesting facts. “Pokeweed berries yield a red ink or dye, which was once used by Native Americans to decorate their horses. The United States Declaration of Independence was written in fermented pokeberry juice (hence the common name 'inkberry'). Many letters written home during the American Civil War were written in pokeberry ink; the writing in these surviving letters appears brown. The red juice has also been used to symbolize blood, as in the anti-slavery protest of Benjamin Lay. A rich brown dye can be made by soaking fabrics in fermenting berries in a hollowed-out pumpkin.

So reading an 1830 book is interesting, but following its advice without some research can be harmful to your health.

Cucumbers Then and Now

It’s been awhile since I have commented on Mrs. Child’s book, the Frugal American Housewife. It’s time to remedy that lapse. On page 18 she continues her advice for the 1830 housewife:

“It is thought to be a preventive to the unhealthy influence of cucumbers to cut the slices very thin, and drop each one into cold water as you cut it. A few minutes in the water takes out a large portion of the slimy matter, so injurious to health. They should be eaten with high seasoning.”

Now, I don’t know that I’ve really thought about the “slimy substance” before. I guess the jelly-like stuff around the seeds could be called slimy though. And don’t you wonder how the cucumber gained the reputation for being injurious to your health?

In my grandparents day cucumbers were always served peeled. Jim’s grandmother, Mertie Donoho Greenwalt said that the “peelings would kill ‘ya!” She would be appalled to see sliced cucumbers served with a rim of dark green peeling still on them.

I don’t know what Mrs. Child meant by “high seasoning,” but I know that most of the people in days gone by sliced cucumbers and onions into a brine of vinegar, salt and water. Some added sugar, but our family didn’t. For years my husband wouldn’t eat a raw cucumber, but he loved the brined ones his mother made.

Have you noticed that vegetables today that are often eaten raw would never have been served uncooked in the first half the 20th Century? Think about broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, cauliflower, and squash. Today we eat them raw as often as we eat them cooked. How times have changed!

What My Husband Isn't and Is

We’ve been married for almost 49 years, and I think we’re pretty happy with each other. I doubt that either of us would say we’re perfect, but we’ve managed to mesh together well. We’ve learned to ignore things we don’t like and really enjoy the things we do like. A few years ago it was popular to list what a “real man is,” and I began to mentally compile a list of the things I really liked about Jim. I’ve added to it over time, and I’ll undoubtedly add a few more as I think of them. Here’s a partial list:

I’m glad my husband doesn’t:
Drink
Smoke
Gamble
Run around with other women
Have nights out with the guys
Ride a motorcycle
Golf
Go fishing
Go camping
Go hunting
Vacation at the beach
Own a boat
Cook in my kitchen
Wear plaid pants or white shoes
Tell dirty jokes (he leaves that to me)
Swear in public
Waste money sending me flowers



Now what do I like about my husband? I’m glad he:

Has a great sense of humor (the first trait I noticed and liked when we met)
Is a good father
Is a good role model
Is kind and thoughtful
Is generous
Is a computer guru (how else would I keep my computer working?)
Is easy to talk to
Stops whenever I need a pee break when we’re traveling
Will stop and ask for directions if we’re lost
Likes family get-togethers
Adores his grandchildren
Likes cats (and a few specific dogs)
Has a wonderful set of siblings
Will eat anything I cook as long as it doesn’t have broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus or cauliflower in it.

Birthday Parties, a Comparison

I got to thinking awhile back that birthday parties "ain't what they used to be." Now I'm wondering if everyone else has the same disconnect between the parties they were given as a child and parties kids enjoy today.

I'll have to admit that I don't recall a specific birthday party when I was little. I know there was some sort of celebration. My Grandma Hammond would never pass up the chance to be festive. But I simply don't have any vivid images of those events. I remember a little about parties in general back then.

There would be just a few kids invited, maybe 6 or 8 at the most. There would be cake and ice cream, and everyone would bring a wrapped gift to the birthday kid. Then there would be organized games: pin the tail on the donkey, spin the bottle, who's got the thinble, etc. The gifts were never very elaborate or expensive. Even the host family didn't give the birthday child more than 2 presents. The whole party would last a little over an hour and then the other kids would go home.

That was birthday parties in the 40's and 50's. In the 60's when my children were little, parties were a little more elaborate. I had read in a Family Circle or Woman's Day (the sources of much of my knowledge in those days) that you could set a rule that each child could invite as many children as he/she was old. So a 6-year-old would invite 6 children; a thirteen-year-old would invite 13. We used that rule for all our kids, and it worked out quite well. When the kids were small and more or less unruly, you'd have few of them to contend with. As they got older you could handle more bodies, because they were more able to take care of themselves. I was never very good at organizing games kids liked to play, so the parties weren't quite as "managed" as they had been when I was little. The kids just did whatever they thought was fun (within reason, of course). There was still cake and ice cream, but now we tended to give our children more gifts, and it was not uncommon to give each guest a small token to take home with him/her.

Birthdays in our family today have taken on a whole 'nother atmosphere. They are BIG productions! They're an excuse for a family reunion and a reason for friends to gather. At least that's what they have morphed into in our family. Every member of the family, extended or otherwise, is invited. Friends of the parents are welcome. Children abound. It's not unusual for these fetes to have 30 people present. There's lots of food, not just ice cream and cake. In fact, the cake seems almost an afterthought. Everyone eats, talks, laughs, and has a great old time. Kids go off to play in the toy fields of the host family. There are more presents for the birthday child than there are at Christmas, and those presents are not "token" gifts either. Everyone has a wonderful time, and the birthday child knows that his/her day was something special.

I wonder if anyone in our family today would tolerate the meager party trappings of the birthday celebrations that I had as a child. I’m personally not unhappy with the changes, but it seems to me that big blow-outs like we currently stage are awfully hard on the hosting family …to say nothing of their budgets. That said, I’m always going to try to be present for birthday parties. They’re a blast.

In's and Out's of Language

The way language changes fascinates me. This article is funny and enlightening.

The Last Page – Smithsonian Magazine, March 2008-p.112
Electrocybertronics: Marketing Through Pseudoscience by Alex Boese

Want to put your company or product on the cutting edge of science? Simple. Add a trendy prefix or suffix to its name. But beware: what linguistic fashion raises up, it can also bring down.
Electric. In the 19th century, electricity represented the future, so marketers affixed “electro” prefixes to any and everything. Consumers could purchase Dr. Hallock’s Electric Polishing Powder for touching up your silver. Such products shared a common trait: they had absolutely nothing to do with electricity, though just thinking about the Galvano-Electric Regenerator (“a certain cure for Spermatorrhea, Impotency, Seminal Losses, etc.”) must have caused some to feel tingly all over. At least electro-lumps—a marketer’s brainstorm for coal—could actually generate electric current.
-ex. How or why the “-ex” suffix came to be associated with things scientific has baffled researchers. (One theory holds that it evokes such highbrow, Latin-derived technical terms as “convex” and “cortex.”) During the first half of the 20th century, -ex’s multiplied like wire hangers in a coat closet: Pyrex, Sinex, Playtex—and let’s not forget Kleenex. But progress marches on and recent decades have favored a new and improved version: “-ix.” Thus, we now have Technix (a manufacturer of rubber and plastic products) and even --double or nothing—Solarix Intellectronix (a search engine). In 2005, a European court dismissed a trademark infringement case brought by publishers of the Asterix comic strip against MobiliX software project. With this legal hurdle cleared, ixpect an –ix-filled insistence.
-ola. During the early 20th century, manufacturers decided that “-ola” would add a warm glow of technological competence to audio and electronic products—despite an unfortunate association with such infectious diseases as rubeola. The fad began with a player piano trademarked in 1900 as Pianola. (Arthur Loesser, a piano historian, said the suffix “sounded easily mechanical, playfully pleasant.”) Then, along came Victrola, Radiola, Rock-Ola, Moviola and Motorola. But “ola” fell out of favor during the “payola” radio scandals of the 1960s (until the food industry resurrected it for a range of wholesome, nutritious wannabes such as Bran’nola and canola).
-tronics. In its April 1961 issue, Time magazine noted that “a stock whose name suggests either electronics or technical mystery seems sure to have a jump in price.” Certainly “-tronics” were everywhere: Radiatronics, Eltronics and Powerton Ultrasonics. This magical suffix did not prevent many of such companies from short-circuiting when the –tronics stock bubble ultimately burst in 1962.
Cyber-. Author William Gibson is usually credited, or blamed, for the “cyber” prefix because he introduced the concept of “cyberspace” in his 1984 novel Neuromancer. By the mid-1990s, cyber-mania was in full swing, producing such oddities as Chanel’s Cyber Glow cosmetics and designer Betsey Johnson’s “Suzie Cyber” fashion line, despite, one journalist noted, that “in cyberspace no one can see what you’re wearing.” By the end of the decade, cyber-nausea had set in and overusers of the term were banished to Cyberia.
Nano- Lately the prefix trend has been shrinking. During the 1980s, “mini-“ gave way to “micro-,” which has yielded to “nano-.” In the new millennium, companies such as Nanometrics, Nanogen and NanoPierce Technologies have all embraced the prefix, despite complaints their products were hardly nano-scale (a billionth of a meter or smaller). Even Eddie Bauer sells stain-resistant nano-pants. (They’re available in extra-large” for the retailer’s not-so-nano customers.) Proceeding down the scale leads one inexorably to yocto-, a metric prefix meaning one-septillionth. If you’re thinking of trademarking yocto, you’d better move fast, before the iPod Yocto appears on store shelves.

Alex Boese is the author of Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B. S. (Harcourt, 2006). He lives in San Diego.

Choose "Cool"

Whether you like Barack Obama or not, there is a gloss of celebrity that coats him. Can you believe that people would actually vote for someone because they think he's handsome? Well, yeah. They did it when Kennedy was running, didn't they?

The middle school kids at my grandson's school are all "for Obama." They "hate Clinton." Why? Well, because he's cool, and she's not. Unfortunately for our country there are a lot of grown-ups who are selecting our next president on the basis of "cool" alone.