2018, Perhaps The Most Important Election EVER

Signs of a developing trend leading to the crucial midterm election on November 6 have been in abundance in early special elections. Americans almost always seem to reprimand the party holding the White House in elections held at the halfway mark of a president's term. (DAMN! It just dawned on me, that must be why they call them the "midterm elections." See, just give me a few decades and I can figure it out.) It doesn't always seem to mean that Americans dislike the president in office at the time, but all presidents step on some toes, and those with smarting toes are highly motivated to limp to the polls to vote, often leading their own party to turn out in large enough numbers to give anything from a nudge to an outright smack upside the head to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, better known as the White House. There have been numerous special elections since Donald Trump took office in January 2017, and while these elections have produced a number of Democratic wins, including some stunning wins, even the Democratic losses have shown a major narrowing of the margins of Republican victories, compared to recent historical Republican margins in those regions. 

Thoughtful change often wins in the end, but it can take time and the question is, can American institutions and American ideals hold on long enough to win against a man who longs to destroy American democracy so that he can become the undisputed Führer of the United States? Republicans in Congress have knowingly rolled over for this strident, divisive and highly insecure president. Have we forgotten the longstanding question about Hitler and Germans? How could an educated and cultured people follow such a self centered and maniacal man like Hitler, a man with obvious emotional problems? We need not ask that question any longer, for the answer is right before our eyes in the United States of America, where a bigoted, resentful and spiteful old bastard with a bad hairdo has risen to lead this country (hey, Hitler had a bad hairdo too). The GOP has long cultivated the uneasiness of some white Americans about the attempts of black Americans, as well as other American minorities, like Latinos, women (who are actually a majority) and gays, to gain equality and fairness in our society. The thing is, in my lifetime, I have heard many divisive statements by American politicians, including, but not limited to, George Wallace* in the 1960s and 1970s, and David Duke** in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, but I've never heard a president of the United States use so much divisive rhetoric to further his own cause and to satisfy his own ego, as one Donald Trump, the unity of the country be damned!      

This upcoming election is likely to be a fight to the death. Are Democrats, independents and anti Trump Republicans ready? Trump and the complicit and enabling Republicans will do anything and everything to minimize their losses and hold onto their control of Congress. The Koch brothers, the Mercers and all of the other "take me back to a previous century" people will spend unprecedented amounts to further Republican control of government. They will say it is to further the Republican Party, but that party is now the party of Donald Trump, which they will NOT tell you. Will the election prove to be the beginning of Trump's political demise, or will he and Republicans emerge stronger than ever, and likely be able to suppress the rights of Americans to protest and to stop the media from reporting critical news articles about them? Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China are Trump heroes, and they are dictators. We don't need to dig up Einstein to connect the dots for us to understand where Trump stands on democracy. This is all in front us, not hidden somewhere in the shadows of the news. Don't be in denial. Don't stick your head in the sand. We can't take our eyes off of them for one second. The young people of this country have stirred and have been springing into action. They can help to lead us through the potentially destructive nightmare of Trumpian fascism.

For the last couple of centuries, people around the world have looked to the United States as a beacon of hope. Some people have been inspired by the U.S. to pursue freedoms within their own respective countries, while others have left their homelands bound for American shores. We're seeing the light of that beacon flickering like a kerosene lamp running low on fuel. The question is, will WE choose to refill the lamp and keep this beacon of hope shining, or will we let the lamp go dry and extinguish its light, letting the path of hope go dark? We now have a man in office who praises dictators and judges people not as individuals, but by their ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds. That's what Führers do.


* George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 1960s, a time when desegregation of schools and public facilities was ongoing. For more on the issue of desegregation and racial politics, here are  two links: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_8.html 

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_15.html 

** David Duke is a long time member, and a former leader, of the "Ku Klux Klan," often known by its initials, "KKK," a racist and overall hate filled group dating to the post Civil War era in the American South. Duke was born in Oklahoma, but he has spent much of his life in Louisiana. As most Southerners of earlier times, Duke was a Democrat, and he sought office as such, but as Louisiana and the South, in general, moved more to the Republican Party, Duke changed to that party in the late 1980s. Duke became known for his anti Black American and anti Jewish views. 

WORD HISTORY:
Beacon-This word for "a light positioned on some high place to serve as a guide or warning, often for ships, but not exclusively so," goes back to Indo European "bhah," which had the notion, "to shine, to be bright, to appear as bright." This provided the later basis for West Germanic "bauknan" (English is West Germanic), meaning, "signal light." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beacen/becn," meaning, "sign, signal." This then became "beken," before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German "Bake" (pronounced as if, "bahkeh") meaning, "traffic sign, railway signal," originally used in reference to "a fire set on a geographically high point or in a tower to provide sea navigation);" Low German Saxon "Baak" (sign or signal for ships), West Frisian "beaken" ("buoy"), Dutch "baken" ("beacon"). "Apparently," long ago, Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, borrowed the word from Frisian as, "bákn," which meant, "signal, signal fire."^ This was passed down to the modern North Germanic languages as: Icelandic "bákn," which now means, "large stone column;" that is, "a column showing direction."

^ Centuries ago, the Frisian word was "baken/beken," and meant "signal or signal fire." Later, Frisian split into dialects, giving West Frisian the altered spelling and the narrowed meaning to the modern "buoy." Researching North Frisian is very hard, but it "seems" to have "beken," but I can't confirm that from multiple sources. North Frisian is spoken in the German region of North Frisia, which also includes a number of North Sea islands, called the North Frisian Islands (someone stayed awake late to come up with that name). Remember too, while North Frisian is the spoken regional language, standard German is taught to everyone in school.   

"Real Americans" Are NOT Nazis

Updated somewhat 10-8-20

We hear or see statements claiming, "Real Americans ...," and then comes an action or thought that the person seems to believe are "un-American." What is a "real American?" I can't define it, but I can tell you, it indeed isn't a Nazi, or any fascist for that matter, as many thousands of American soldiers fought and died to help defeat the Nazi Nutcase In Chief, Adolf Hitler, and his strutting Fascist ally, Benito Mussolini, as well as a string of other fascist, or right wing authoritarian and militarist regimes also allied to the Nutty Nazi, most notably, in Japan. Many thousands of other Americans were wounded, and none came home without some physical or mental scar from having fought to help roll back fascism.

More than 400,000 Americans died during World War Two, and more than 600,000 were wounded.   

We aren't a perfect country, and we never have been. "Some" Americans are so insecure, they can't ever admit that there are or were injustices and flaws in the nation from its very birth. The American Civil War showed the terrible divide in just such attitudes over the major injustice of slavery in the United States, as the northern states and the southern states didn't just decide to have a war out of boredom. That war cost somewhere between 600,000 and 750,000 military deaths, and an unknown number of civilian deaths, most which would have been in the Confederacy. No, the United States isn't perfect, but Americans have worked, and continue to work, to correct our flaws, no matter how painful it may be. Fascists, while trying to portray themselves as strong, only show themselves as weak, as they can't even admit to problems in the nation, let alone join with others to fix those problems. Such weakness and insecurity brought about Hitler's Gestapo and Mussolini's OVRA, both organizations of secret police used to subdue critics.* The United States now has a president who wants to use the Justice Department and that department's FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) to go after his critics and political opponents. Will Americans let this happen? Did so many Americans die to let fascism "trump" us? (Pun intended!) No..... "real Americans" are not Nazis! FIGHT FASCISM! VOTE to defeat Trump AND his Republican accomplices who have sat by and watched this nearly four year anti-democracy spectacle take place.

 * "Gestapo" was an abbreviation for "Geheime Staatspolizei" (Secret State Police), and "OVRA" was an abbreviation for "Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo" (Organization for Vigilance and the Repression of Anti Fascism).   

WORD HISTORY: 

Err-This word goes back to Indo European "ers/ars," which had the notion, "move around, wander about." This gave Latin the verb, "errare," meaning, "to wander around;" thus also, "to lose one's way;" thus also the figurative, "to make a mistake, to err." This was passed to Latin-based Old French as "errer," with the same meanings, and this was borrowed into English in the very early 1300s as "erren," meaning, "to wander off, to stray, to make a mistake (thus also, "to commit a sin"). In those times, many English infinitive verbs were formed with an ending of "en," which didn't require "to" to be added to the infinitive, but English verb conjugations later changed, and this then produced infinitive forms like, "to err," "to go," "to say," as the "-en" was dropped. Close relative German still uses "-en" to form infinitive forms (to match the above English forms: "irren," "gehen," "sagen"). "Err" is related through Indo European to former English words, "ierre," a noun meaning, "wrath" (from the idea of "going astray from normal"), and an adjective of that same spelling meaning, "confused, gone astray, wrathful," and the verb, "iersian," meaning, "to be angry," but also, "to provoke to anger." German "irren," mentioned above, is a close relative through Germanic, and there are more relatives in other Germanic languages.   

Creamy Shrimp Soup of Northern Germany: Greetsieler Krabbensuppe

Greetsiel is a small port town of about 1500 on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is part of the region known as "East Frisia" (German: "Ostfriesland," East Frisian dialect of Frisian: "Oostfreesland"), which is part of the German state of "Lower Saxony" (German: "Niedersachsen").

The standard German word for "shrimps" * is "Garnelen" (pronounced as if, "gar-NAY-len") a form of a word standard German got from Dutch (modern Dutch "garnalen"), but in the north of Germany, the shrimps caught in the North Sea, typically brownish in color, are called "Krabben," actually the standard word for crabs, and of course, a close relative to the English word. As always, there are variations to this recipe. 

Ingredients:

3/4 pound small shrimp, peeled and cleaned
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
1/2 carrot, sliced
2 green onions (whole; that is, green and white), chopped
4 cups water
1/4 cup parsley
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup canned milk (reduced calorie is fine)
1/2 cup bacon, diced or chopped (I simply chopped some thick cut bacon slices)

Simmer the potatoes, carrot, parsley and green onions in the 4 cups of water until tender, then use a stick blender/immersion blender to puree the vegetables right in the cooking water, or put everything into a processor to puree the vegetables (then add all back to the pan). Add the butter and milk to the already warm liquid, and heat over low heat until hot, but not boiling. Meanwhile, saute the bacon and then drain it on paper towels. Add the bacon and shrimp to the soup, mix well and cook until the shrimp are tender (which is very quickly), season the soup with a little salt and top each serving with some chives.

* I "believe" in England and other parts of Britain, "shrimp" is the singular form and "shrimps" is the plural form, but in the U.S. (not sure about Canada), we often use "shrimp" as both singular and plural. So we often say, "Add the shrimp to the soup," but that could mean one shrimp or 50. It is rare to hear "shrimps" used in American English; at least, in my experience. It is often the same with the word "crab," although you are much more apt to hear "crabs" as the plural; at least, at times.

With some German "Vollkornbrot" (whole grain bread)...

WORD HISTORY:
Pond/Pound-"Pond" is simply a variation of the word "pound," the form meaning, "an enclosed place," as in "dog pound." Its distant history is unknown, but it goes back to the Old English verb "pyndan," which meant, "to dam up, to close off," and to the noun, "pynd," "a small lake, man made storage area for water." "Pynd" then became "pund," also taking on the meaning, "enclosure for animals," and the spelling later became "pound" for the "animal enclosure" meaning, and "pond" for "body of water." While there is no clear size for the body of water, "pond" usually indicates a small body of water, although the expression "across the pond" began use in the American colonies as a meaning for the Atlantic Ocean in the mid 1600s. The verb "to pond," and meaning "to accumulate water to form a pond or a puddle," came from the noun. "Pound" also provided the basis for "impound," a word originally used to mean, "to put confiscated cattle or horses into a closed off area" (in about 1450?), but today used with the same general meaning, but typically for confiscated vehicles.      

Tyrolean Style Liver (Tiroler Leber)

There are many variations to recipes of this name, "Leber nach Tiroler Art;" that is, "Liver, Tirol Style" (literally, "Liver after (or, according to) Tirol Type"), or sometimes it is called, "Tiroler Leber." It is made in Austria and Bavaria.* This is really a stew, and a very good one, at that. Some fix it with cream instead of sour cream, but others use no cream or sour cream at all, while some add lemon juice, but no wine, and there are other variations too. Some serve it with polenta, which Austro-German culture got from the Italians.** To me, the great sauce of this dish requires mashed potatoes, but I'm a lover of mashed potatoes; so to me, chocolate ice cream requires mashed potatoes. Well, that's not true... actually, strawberry ice cream. 

Ingredients (for 4 to 6 servings):

1 1/2 pounds liver (calves, beef or pork) cut into bite sized pieces
flour for coating the liver
3 tablespoons butter + 3 tablespoons olive oil
5 thick cut slices smoked bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups beef stock
2/3 cup white wine
1 heaping teaspoon dried marjoram leaves (or you can use oregano)
3 tablespoons (drained) capers, whole or chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt (or you can omit this, if the beef stock is salty)
1 teaspoon black pepper
flour and water for thickener, if desired
1/2 cup sour cream (reduced fat type is fine)

Coat the cut liver pieces with flour, set aside. In a skillet over medium heat, add the oil and butter. Add the bacon and the onion, cook, stirring the mixture around fairly often, until the onion is softened. Add the liver and cook for a few minutes before adding the beef stock, the wine and the marjoram. Stir well to mix. Reduce heat to simmer the stew. When the liver is cooked through, add the capers, the pepper and the salt (if using), stir well. (If you want the sauce to be thickened, as I like, mix some flour and water and gradually stir it into the stew. Let the stew simmer for a minute or two.) Remove the stew from the heat and stir in the sour cream until it is fully mixed in.

* Tyrol/Tirol is a region in the Alps divided between Austria and Italy since the end of World War One. Long a part of the Old German Empire, then of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary, the southern part of the region, the South Tirol (German: Südtirol, Italian: Alto Adige) was given to Italy after World War One, which caused bitter feelings by the majority German population for decades (it should be noted, parts of the region had substantial Italian minorities or even local majorities).  

** Of course, the Italians live just south of the German speaking areas. "Polenta," known to most Americans as simply, "cornmeal," is ground corn/maize, a food taken to Europe from the New World, along with some other new food products for those times, like potatoes and tomatoes, for instance. In German the word "Polenta" is used as the standard word, but there is also "Plentn" in dialect, as well as "Sterz" in some southern dialect (more for the cooked type, either as a kind of solidly cooked "bread/cake," or as a kind of porridge). German also uses "Maismehl" (maize meal) for the uncooked ground meal.   

Tyrolean Style Liver with mashed potatoes and salad....

WORD HISTORY: 
Brook-There is more than one word of this spelling in English (the noun is unrelated and is from a totally different source), and this is the verb "brook," with the modern meaning of "to tolerate, bear something unpleasant." It is distantly related to "fruit," a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English, which originally meant "an enjoyment," which then progressed to the modern meaning, "produce of trees or bushes" (from the notion, "a food that is enjoyed"). It goes back to Indo European "bhrug," with the notion of, "to enjoy, to make use of for enjoyment." This gave Old Germanic "brukanan," with the same meanings. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "brucan," meaning, "to enjoy, to use, to eat and to enjoy food;" which led to the meanings, "to digest," and for the food, "to be digestible;" thus, "to tolerate (stomach wise);" thus, to the later more general sense of "tolerate, bear something," the meaning that survived into modern English. In more modern times, at least in the U.S., it is often used in the negative sense, "I can't brook his drinking and gambling." Other Germanic relatives: German has "gebrauchen" (to use) and "brauchen," (to have need of, to have the need to use something), Low German Saxon has "bruken" (to need for use, to use), West Frisian "brûke" (to use), Dutch "bruiken" (to use, to make use of). Apparently a form did not survive in North Germanic, but the word was not just in West Germanic, as Gothic, which was East Germanic, had "brukjan" (to enjoy). Danish "bruge" (to use), Norwegian "bruke" (to use) and Swedish "bruka" (to become accustomed to, to till land; that is, make land ready for use, but the word's former general meaning was, "make use of"), all came by borrowing from Low German.    

Berlin Style Liver (Leber Nach Berliner Art)

This is a pretty well known dish from Berlin, although it is certainly served outside of Berlin, just as Wiener Schnitzel is served outside of Vienna (Wien in German). It is usually made with calves liver, but you can use beef or pork liver and Bismarck's ghost won't get you with his spiked helmet.

"Yeeeooow! What the hell? Medic! I'll have to finish typing this while I'm standing up."

Anyway, it is not uncommon to find Berlin style liver in German-American restaurants. In Berlin it is commonly served with mashed potatoes, but you can serve whatever you like and Bismarck's ghost ... well, never mind about Bismarck's ghost. I'm not going through that again.

Ingredients (about 4 servings):

1 1/2 pounds liver, sliced, but not too thickly
2 baseball size onions, peeled and sliced into 1/3 inch rounds (you can use white, yellow or red onions)
2 apples (like red delicious or golden delicious), typically peeled, but I leave the skin on, cored then cut into round slices 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick
4 or 5 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
butter/canola oil mix (about 3 or 4 tablespoons butter and the same amount of oil)

Heat 2 tablespoons each of butter and oil in a skillet over low heat. Dust the liver slices with flour and set aside. Add the onion slices to the pan and saute until lightly browned (the slices will naturally come apart). Remove the onions to a dish and keep them warm. Add the apple slices to the pan and cook until they too are somewhat browned, remove and keep warm. Add more butter and oil to the skillet, then add the liver slices. Brown on both sides and cook until they are just cooked through. Season the cooked liver with salt and pepper after removing it from the heat. Serve with mashed potatoes and with some onion and apple rings next to the liver.

WORD HISTORY:
Stroll-The history of this word is a bit uncertain, although it looks pretty logical to me. It was borrowed by English in the very early 1600s from German, which had "Strolch," a word from Alemannic German dialect^ which meant, "a vagabond, a rogue, a mischievous boy." This seems to have developed from Alemannic dialect "strollen," which meant, "to wander around aimlessly" (Alemannic also had the noun "Stroll," meaning "vagabond"). While not a complete certainty, these German forms seem to have developed as an abbreviated form of Italian "astrologo," which meant "astrologer, stargazer;" thus also, "interpreter of the stars and their relationship to events, a prophet," and which passed into Lombardic, the language of the Germanic Lombards who settled in northern Italy (the region of Lombardia is named for them), as "strolegh," which then became "strolago," and meant, "vagabond, traveling entertainer who uses tricks to deceive his audience." This seems to have passed into Alemannic in the 1400s from Swiss (German) and Swabian mercenary soldiers serving in northern Italy.

^  Alemannic is a group of German dialects tracing back to the Germanic tribe the Alemanni. Alemannic is pretty much concentrated in the southwestern area of the German-speaking area and includes Switzerland, extreme western Austria, Liechtenstein, Alsace in eastern France and southwestern Germany, including a part of Bavaria. Alemannic is the general name for the dialect, but it breaks down further into numerous regional and local dialects. Not all Alemannic speakers can necessarily understand one another.

North German Rum Drink: Hoppelpoppel

The name of this North German and Frisian drink is the same as a famous dish from Berlin, but the two have absolutely nothing in common, as the Berlin dish is typically potatoes fried with bacon or ham, onions and eggs (the name is also written as two words by some, "Hoppel Poppel"). Rum became a fairly popular alcoholic beverage in Germany, as rum was brought into north German ports from the Caribbean. This is an easy drink to make, but it does require you to heat the mixture, and to be attentive, as it has raw egg. It is actually like making custard, but it shouldn't be allowed to thicken too much. You can enjoy this while it is still warm or you can put the glasses into the freezer for a little while before filling them. The whipped cream will help to cool the prepared mixture enough so as not to break the chilled glasses, but to be safe, let the mixture sit for a couple of minutes before dispensing it to the glasses. Don't blame me if you find yourself making this over and over.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

5 egg yolks
3 cups milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending upon how sweet you want it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup Puerto Rican or other Caribbean rum
8 ounces heavy cream, whipped

Get a bowl that will fit over a pan of hot water. The bowl should not touch the hot water. Heat some water in the pan so that it barely simmers. Put the bowl over the pan and add the eggs and sugar; mix well and continue to stir until the egg mix begins to tighten up. Gradually whisk in the milk (whisk constantly to prevent the eggs from actually coming out like scrambled eggs, and don't be afraid to lift the bowel off of the pan, if need be), the vanilla and the nutmeg. Continue to gently whisk as the mixture heats and thickens. Take care not to let the mixture boil, and also, take care not to let it thicken to pudding status (custard), but you can add a little more milk to thin it out, if needed. When the mixture has heated and thickened somewhat, remove it from the heat and gradually fold in all but a couple of tablespoons of the whipped cream. Fill the glasses and top each drink with a little of the remaining whipped cream.   

WORD HISTORY:
Duck (#2)-This is not the word for the bird, but rather a word meaning "sailcloth, sackcloth." It goes back to Indo European "dwok," which meant, "cloth, fabric." This gave West Germanic "dokaz" (see the other Germanic languages below), with the same meaning. I could not find a form in Old English, which seems odd, in that the other West  Germanic languages had forms, but it is possible that the West Germanic form didn't spread to Anglo-Saxon before it left the Continent and became established in Briton as English. It's always possible, too, that an Old English form went unrecorded and that it then died out. Anyway, Dutch had "doec" (now spelled, "doek"), and this was borrowed by English circa 1600. The other Germanic languages have: German "Tuch" (cloth, fabric, towel, neckerchief), Low German Saxon "Dook" (cloth, fabric, woven material), Dutch "doek" (cloth, rag, canvas, sail), some Frisian dialect has "douk" (cloth) and West Frisian has "doek," but that "might be" from Dutch, although Frisian once had "dok." It "seems" the North Germanic languages, initially represented by Old Norse, borrowed a form of the word from Low German or German, as "dukr," meaning, "cloth, curtain, veil, sail," which was passed down to Icelandic as "dúkur," meaning, "fabric, cloth," and to Swedish as "duker," but it "seems" Swedish later borrowed from Low German a form rendered as "duk" (cloth, then tablecloth). and perhaps the same is true of Danish "dug" (canvas, cloth, later tablecloth and cloth material for a banner), as well as Norwegian "duk" (cloth, canvas, later tablecloth and cloth used in religious ceremony).   

What's In A Name: Christine, Christopher

Christine-This female name goes back to transliterated Greek "christianos," which meant, "one who follows Christ;" thus, "a Christian." This was borrowed by Latin as "christianus," which then used it for the name, "Christiana," later rendered in other languages as "Christina/Christine." Other forms are "Kristina" and "Kristen."

Christopher-This male name, also used as a family name, started with transliterated Greek "Christos," meaning, "Christ," and "phoros," from the Greek verb "pherein," meaning, "to bear, to carry." The name was borrowed into Latin, the language of early Christianity, with the assumption that it meant, "bearer of Christ (in the heart)." Some, but not all, Christians accept the existence of Saint Christopher, and revere him as a protector of travelers. It seems, however, that "Christopher" was used as a title (Bearer of Christ) for some Christian leaders, and thus, some believe the title was confused for a name of a man from the 200 A.D. era. So... whatever your beliefs...  The name started to spread in English during the 1400s. The name is common, or fairly common, in various languages, and a few examples are: modern (transliterated) Greek uses "Christoforos," French uses "Christophe," German uses "Christoph," Portuguese uses "Cristóvão" and Spanish uses "Cristóbal," and sometimes, "Cristóforo."

I consulted the following for this article: 1) "A World of Baby Names," by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003 2) "A Greek-English Lexicon," by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie and Eric Arthur Barber, published by Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1940 3) Behindthename.com

WORD HISTORY:
Bear (verb)-English has more than one word of this spelling, and this is for the verb meaning, "to carry, to carry to fruition, to produce or give birth." It is related to "burden," another English word from its Germanic roots, and it goes back to Indo European "bher," which meant, "to bear a burden, to carry." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "beranan," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beran," meaning, "to bear, to carry, to wear, to produce, to give birth, to hold up physically (weight, as in, "Can the foot bridge bear both of us?"), to endure a burden." It also gave Old English "geberan," meaning the specific, "to give birth, to bring forth." These later became consolidated into "beren," before the modern form. The other Germanic languages have: German has several forms, including: "gebären" meaning, "to give birth, to bring into the world, to bring forth;" also, "entbehren," meaning, "to do without (something)," and the noun, "Entbehrung" means, "deprivation" (a lack of something you must bear), "gebaren," for "behavior" (the way you 'bear/carry' yourself); Low German has "beren" (to give birth) and "bären," for "behavior;" Dutch verb "baren," meaning, "to give birth," and the noun, "baren," for "childbearing;" Frisian had forms in the past, but I could only find  "bern," meaning "child," in a modern form; Danish "bære," meaning "to wear, to carry;" Norwegian "bære/bera" meaning, "to carry, to endure a burden;" Icelandic "bera" meaning, "to carry, to endure;" Swedish "bära," meaning, "to carry, to wear." 

The Deal With the Ruthless, Greedy Internet Devils (Plural)

Likely most in the public didn't exactly understand the deal they were being asked to accept for the "right" to have free access to Facebook, Google and others. The almost voluminous agreements flashed onto our screens are all lengthy and complicated for a reason... SO YOU WON'T ACTUALLY READ THEM! Yes, we SHOULD read them, but few really do (I plead guilty), and the issuing companies know that. The info the technology companies have compiled on us, by various reports, is STAGGERING! We sold our souls and our very personas and the info they have on us will not stay contained; after all, this is about MONEY; therefore, NOTHING is off the table, because they will do ANYTHING for MONEY. Then there are the various Internet service providers to whom we PAY money for their service, and they track EVERY click we make on the Web. They know more about us than we can remember about ourselves! If you really believe these moneygrubbing exploiters won't use any of your medical or banking info, or info on your children or grandchildren, that they have pilfered or pillaged, you're being terribly naive. They want MONEY! Gazillions! Not a quarter of a gazillion, not a half a gazillion, not one gazillion, GAZILLIONS!

Last year, congressional Republicans and Trump repealed Obama rules on your browsing history that were set to go into effect to give individuals the right to approve the collection and sale of their private browsing history. The passage of the repeal by Congress and the signing of the measure by Donald Trump allows the internet service providers (separate from entities like Google and Facebook) to sell your collected browsing history without your consent. Let's start the bidding ... who will give us a bundle for a BUNDLE of info on these people? This is how the vote went in Congress:

Senate vote: 50 FOR, all Republicans, 48 AGAINST, all Democrats, 2 not voting, Republicans Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

House vote: 215 FOR, all Republicans, 205 AGAINST (all voting Democrats and 15 Republicans*), 9 members not voting**, 5 vacancies***

* 15 Republicans against the measure: Brooks (MO), McClintock (CA), Coffman (CO), Yoder (KS), Graves (LA), Amash (MI), Zeldin (NY), Faso (NY), Stefanik (NY), Jones (NC), Davidson (OH), Sanford (SC), Duncan (TN), Herrara Beutler (WA), Reichert (WA)

** 9 members not voting: Sean Duffy (R-WI), James French Hill (R-AR), Tom Marino (R-PA), Robert Pittenger (R-NC), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Michael Simpson (R-ID), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Paul Tonko (D-NY)

*** One vacancy in each of these states: Montana, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, California

WORD HISTORY:
Plunder-In terms of this word's more distant history, this is a mystery word. It was borrowed by English from a sub-dialect of Bavarian German called "Hutterisch," spoken by "some" Protestant groups that grew out of the Reformation. The word "seems" to date to a noun form in the 1300s, at least, in German. In those times, the noun meant, "household goods," which also developed the extended meaning, "clothing." The noun spawned the verb "plundern," which later had an umlaut added to make, "plündern," meaning, "to carry off goods from a house." In those times, Low German and Dutch both had the similar verb "plunderen," while West Frisian had "plonderje," all with the same general meaning as the German verb, as well as, "to take over someone's possessions," with a growing emphasis on "taking possessions by force." German also developed "Plünderer," meaning, "one who plunders, one who takes possessions from others by force, a looter." Both the noun and the verb forms were borrowed by English during the first half of the 1600s. More or less as already noted, German has the verb "plündern," meaning, "to plunder, to loot," and the noun, "Plunder," which has now come to mean "junk, rubbish:" Dutch has the verb "plunderen," meaning, "to plunder, to ransack, to loot;" as well as the noun, "plundering," meaning, "the act of plundering, marauding."

German Egg Grog: Eiergrog

The German North Sea coast is the ancestral homeland of the Germanic tribes that sailed to Briton 1500 years ago and founded England. To this day the English and the Germans of the area share more than their DNA and the common Germanic source of their languages,* as they also share a good deal of weather, as well as food and beverage similarities. Like their English cousins, these northern Germans like tea, although I'm sure this isn't some shared genetic trait, but rather more a fact of shared cool, damp weather conditions in many parts of both northern Germany and parts of England, as well as the fact that tea drinking has become quite a tradition among these North Sea cousins. The Germans in this area of the north use rock candy (called "Kluntje" in the region) to sweeten their tea. Another shared drink is grog, borrowed by the Germans from the English. The drink is served hot, and it is another tie to weather conditions, as it can take the chill out of a polar bear (German: Eisbär, literally, "ice bear," but they also use "Polarbär"). So the English and the northern Germans share tea and grog, both a type of "drink," which is "Drank" in both Low German and Frisian, and "Getränk" in standard German. This grog has egg yolk and is called "Eiergrog" (the first part is pronounced as if, "eye-ah") in German; that is, "Eggs Grog." **

Ingredients (4 servings):

3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
8 ounces rum (light or dark)
8 ounces hot water (you can adjust the amount of rum and water)

If you have a stainless steel bowl that will fit over a pan of hot water, that is ideal for this. Heat the water in the pan. Meanwhile, heat some more water to be added to the mixture. Mix the egg yolks and sugar and set the bowl over the hot water. Stirring constantly, gradually add the rum, then the hot water. Don't let the eggs curdle, and pull the bowl off of the hot water if need be to prevent curdling. Keep stirring (whisking is best) until you get some froth to the rum mixture. Serve the grog in glasses and stir again to keep the froth. If desired, dust each glass of grog with a bit of nutmeg or mace.  

* The Germans of the area often grow up bilingual, speaking Low German and standard German, and some even grow up multilingual, speaking Frisian, or even Danish.

** English long had "ei/ey/eai" (dialectal variances all pronounced essentially like "eye") as its word for "egg," with "egg" being a close relative of the former word, but brought to northern England long ago by the Danes, who spoke Old Norse, a Germanic cousin of English from the North Germanic branch of Germanic. "Egg" eventually won the battle, but not until the 16th Century. If my memory is right, some linguists have speculated that the "eye" pronunciation of the long time English word may have aided "egg" as a replacement, because of the same pronunciation for the "eye," the organ of sight.  

WORD HISTORY:
Grog-This word goes back to the nickname for Edward Vernon, an English admiral of the mid 1700s, who often commanded ships in the West Indies, famous for its rum. He was called "Old Grog" for his grogram coat. Grogram was a fabric of strong, but coarse material. The admiral gave orders that the rum for his men was to be watered down, thus providing the basis for the drink of rum with water added. The drink also often had lemon added as a preventive measure for scurvy on ships. I've read somewhere, but I cannot now recall where, that the admiral's "water down the rum" order was met by the talk of mutiny. George Washington's brother served under Vernon, and it is for this reason the Washington estate came to be called Mount Vernon (the admiral died well before the American Revolution). "Groggy" came from the idea of being under the influence of too much grog, although later the term broadened in meaning to any condition of not being clear in mind, regardless of alcohol intake.  

German Fish Goulash (Helgoländer Fischgulasch)

Heligoland is a two island German archipelago in the North Sea, about 30 miles from the German mainland. In German, it is "Helgoland" and it is part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. During most of the 1800s, Heligoland was a British possession, having been seized by Britain from Denmark during the Napoleonic Wars. Denmark was Napoleon's ally. In 1890 the British and the Germans reached an agreement giving control of the archipelago to Germany in exchange for some German territories in Africa. The fact that Britain's Queen Victoria was the grandmother of the then German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, likely helped move the deal along.

The main island is only about a half square mile in size, while the second island, "Düne," lying just a very short distance to the east, is only about a quarter square mile in size. Heligoland is essentially motor vehicle and bicycle free, by law, except for authorized vehicles, like for emergencies. Heligoland is known for its beaches and sunbathing areas, its geological rock formations and red sandstone cliffs, its use as a stopping point by seals and a number of birds, making it a great place for bird watching (a bird observatory is there). Heligoland's airport is located on Düne. The actual population of Heligoland is less than 1400, many of whom are Frisians, and they speak a form of North Frisian, alongside standard German, and likely, Low German. From what I understand, a couple hundred thousand tourists visit Heligoland each year. By the way, Heligoland is exempted from collecting European Union taxes and duties on purchases, which means... CHEAP BOOZE! Ah, I mean, reasonably priced alcoholic beverages.

Food wise, Heligoland is famous for its lobsters, but naturally other seafood is common there too (hey, it's in the North Sea). This recipe from Heligoland is subtle, unlike many of the dishes I tend to like, which have strong flavors, but it cannot be highly seasoned, lest the mild taste of the seafood be overwhelmed, although there are other German recipes for fish goulash with much stronger flavors. In this recipe, however, the taste of the seafood shines through so much, you may just have a wish for some "German Egg Grog" to top off your lunch or dinner. (Here is the link to the recipe for grog: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/06/german-egg-grog-eiergrog.html  

Ingredients:

1 pound cod (or substitute the cheaper pollock fillets)
1/2 pound small shrimp, shelled
1/2 pound crab meat
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons butter
5 green onions, including some green, chopped
2 potatoes, diced
2/3 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup fish broth or clam broth
6 white peppercorns
3 juniper berries, crushed
1 cucumber, halved lengthwise, seeds scooped out, then sliced
2 to 3 tablespoons dill
1/2 cup sour cream (or creme fraiche)

Cut the fish into chunks (like bite-sized or a little larger), put in a bowl, then season with salt, ground white pepper, salt and lemon juice; set aside. In a pan over low heat, melt the butter and immediately add the chopped green onion. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring enough to make sure that neither the onion nor the butter brown. Add the potatoes, the white wine, the fish broth, the white peppercorns and the juniper berries. Cook for 3 minutes, then add the cucumber. Cook until both the potatoes and cucumber are tender, but not falling apart. Add the fish, the shrimp and the crab (along with any of the lemon juice collected in the bowl), stir well. Cook until the fish and the shrimp are just cooked through, then stir in the dill and the sour cream. Remove from the heat after about a minute or so.
 
Click the photo to enlarge it

WORD HISTORY: 
Cod/Cuttle-The history of these "seemingly" related words is shaky, at best, but there does seem to be some logic to what I've compiled here. They seem to go back to Indo European "gewt," which meant, "to bend, to bow;" thus also, "sack, bag." This gave Old Germanic "kuddon," meaning, "bag, sack." This gave Old English "codd," meaning, "bag, sack;" thus also, "husk for a pod." This then became "codde," before the modern version. The name "seems" to have been applied to a number of similar fish in the North Sea area in the late 1200s, with the theory being that Englishmen back then thought the fish looked like a pod husk. "Cuttle" has the same origins, but it was "cudele" in Old English and it was the name for the "cuttlefish." It then became "cutil," before the modern form. Forms in the other Germanic languages include: German "Kudele," for "cuttlefish," but the German word is now confined to some dialects (the standard German word for "cuttlefish" is "Tintenfisch; literally, "ink fish"); I found references to Dutch "kodde" being a term for "scrotum," which certainly fits in with the "sack, bag" meaning in Germanic, but "apparently" this usage is dialectal or archaic; likewise with Danish "kodde," which seems to be an archaic term for "scrotum" or "testicle;" Swedish "kudde," meaning, "pillow" (a bag stuffed with feathers, straw or rags); likewise with Icelandic "koddi," which also means "pillow."   

Tomatoes Filled With Seasoned Cottage Cheese

Added two photos 6-19-22

 

I recently came across this "general" recipe among some German dishes. It grabbed my attention, especially with warm weather upon us. To my knowledge, I had never seen this dish, and I looked it up, even under its German name, "Gefüllte Tomaten mit Hüttenkäse" (Hüttenkäse= literally, "hut cheese," hut... cottage... käse=cheese, get it?). Anyway, I found several variations, with some using feta cheese, others using herb seasoned cheese, and still others using no cheese at all, but rather a variety of herbs and spices. So this recipe is the basic recipe, but with my own touches to it.

Ingredients:

4 large (baseball to softball size) ripe tomatoes
2 1/2 cups cottage cheese (large or small curd, low fat is fine)
1/4 cup of your favorite crumbled blue cheese, like Stilton, Roquefort, Gorgonzola or some other 
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
3 green onions, with the green, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
3 tablespoons tomato paste, thinned out with a tablespoon of white wine or just water
1 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon Hungarian hot paprika (generally, Hungarian hot paprika is not really all that "hot")
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon white or black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional, as the cheese has salt)

Cut the tops off of the tomatoes, cut out the tough core and scoop out the seeds and center of the tomatoes, so they can be filled. Mix the rest of the ingredients together well. The mix will have an orange or red like color. Fill each tomato with the mixture and serve with some crackers, chips or bread.  


I served the tomato with a slice of multi-grain bread

And with whole wheat bread ...

WORD HISTORY:
Strain (2)-There is more than one word of this spelling in English, but this is the one with a variety of specific meanings, among which the most common are: 1) "to injure a muscle by tightening that muscle too much, due to overexertion (also used of voice)" 2) "to filter something, typically through some type of sieve" 3) "to lift an object to the point of injury or physical endurance" 4) "to press a matter to what is seen as an extreme position." It is distantly related to "strait," which is used both as a noun and as an adjective, and is a word of Latin derivation, but borrowed by English by way of Latin-based French; and to, "stringent," a word borrowed by English directly from Latin. It goes back to Indo European "streygh," which had the notion, "to press, to exert pressure on;" thus also, "to pull with force." This gave Latin "stringere," meaning, "to pull tightly, press together." This was passed to Latin-baased French as, "estreindre," meaning, "to hold, press or tie tightly." This was borrowed by English in the early part of the 1300s as "streynen," which then became, "straynen," before the modern form. The noun form was derived from the verb in the early 1400s to mean, "an injury to muscle by overexertion (straining)." The noun "strainer" (a filter) was also derived from the verb in the first half of the 1400s (it has peacefully coexisted with the native English word "sieve" since the 1400s, so there is no "strain" between them). 

Lobscouse or Labskaus: A Dish From The Sailing Ship Days

English "Lobscouse" and German "Labskaus" aren't so much true recipes, but rather they are an assembling of various parts of a meal, all easily bought at your local store and none really requires much preparation, unless you choose to make some things from "scratch." Lobscouse, pronounced as if, "lops-cowse," developed from foods commonly carried on sailing ships in the 1700s. The term "may" have developed in England, as "Lobscouse," and then spread to the close cousin of English, Low German, where is was borrowed by standard German. On the other hand, there are those who believe the term developed in German and spread elsewhere. The problem I have with this theory is, in the 1700s, most Germans in the coastal north of Germany spoke Low German, as standard German was not really that common in those areas at that time. Further, there are some obviously related terms in Denmark and Norway, as well as clear over in the areas of the eastern Baltic Sea, all areas, in those times, much more in contact with Low German, but the similarity in the terms and the passing of the base term from area to area is not surprising, as trade between the various regions of the Baltic and North Seas was quite common, but still the word's exact history is unclear.

The component parts of the dish also varied, with English "Lobscouse" being a stew of salt cured beef, soaked a bit in water to lessen the saltiness, then stewed with potatoes, carrots, onions, or perhaps some other vegetables, when available. It seems that some sea cooks thickened the stew with bread crumbs made by pounding stale bread. Some stories I've read mention that beets were often served with the stew (see German Labskaus, below). In more modern times, the basic idea has remained, but the meat nowadays is often mutton or beef, or even ham, and more seasonings are included, as well as other vegetables and rich meat stock. Of course, in the days of the great sailing ships, the beef was salt cured to preserve it. Lobscouse is a specialty of the city of Liverpool in England.  

German "Labskaus" is well known in northern Germany, especially in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen; in fact, I first had "Labskaus" in Hamburg in 1985. "Labskaus" is typically canned corned beef (there's the salt cured beef), potatoes, pickled beets, pickled herring and pickles; then the dish is topped by a fried egg (German: Spiegelei). Rather than use canned corned beef, some people simmer a piece of beef with some salt and seasonings for a couple of hours. They then grind the meat. Sometimes, the pickle, along with a bit of onion, is wrapped up in herring fillets, which is called "Rollmops." Other preserved fish is also used at times. The potatoes are peeled, diced and simmered until just tender, but not falling apart. They are then drained and mixed into the corned beef. A good serving of the beef and potato mix is put in the middle of the plate and it is ringed by some pickled beets, pickled herring or other fish, and some sliced pickles. A fried egg goes on top of the corned beef and potatoes. Some cooks grind or chop the beets and the herring and mix them into the corned beef and potatoes.

So, what you'll need:

canned corned beef or beef simmered with salt and maybe some peppercorns and bay leaves
potatoes, peeled, diced and simmered just until tender
pickled beets from a jar are fine or make them yourself
pickled herring or other herring or sardines
dill pickles, cut into slices lengthwise    
fried eggs

In the picture, I used "Rollmops," a German herring specialty of pickle slices and some onion rolled up in herring fillets, which are then held in place with wooden picks. You can find Rollmops in some supermarkets, but some seafood places may also have them, but regular pickled herring is totally fine to use, as are sardines. I made my own beets, and I improvised, as I had a couple of green onions, so I cut them up, green and all, and used them in the beets. 

WORD HISTORY:
Wade-This word, distantly related through Indo European to the "vade" part of both "invade" and "evade," words of Latin derivation that were borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "wahd," which had the notion, "to go through." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "wadan," meaning, "to go through, to cross through," seemingly also with the underlying notion of "go against hindrance." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wadan," with the same meaning, but more specifically, "to cross a shallow part of a river or stream, to ford, to walk through generally shallow water." This then became "waden," before the modern form, along with the figurative meanings, "to proceed regardless of difficulty, to become involved in some difficulty." The other Germanic languages have: German "waten" (to wade), Low German Saxon "waden" (to wade), Dutch "waden" (to wade), Danish "vade" (to wade), Icelandic "vaða" (=vatha, meaning, "to wade"), Norwegian "vade/vada" (to wade), Swedish "vada" (to wade). (I found what appeared to be forms of the verb in West Frisian, but I could not find the infinitive form.) The "Wadden Sea," known in Low German as the "Wattensee" and in West Frisian as the "Waadsee," is the name of a coastal area of shallow water and wetlands in the North Sea running from southwestern Denmark, northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. In a way, you could say, it's the "Wading Sea," as the term is derived from the same Germanic source, with the idea being, "an area of the sea being shallow enough to be waded." By the way, French "gué" ("ford") was borrowed from Germanic Frankish.