Algerian Lamb Stew With Couscous

The best way to start about this stew is when you go to your butcher for the lamb meat, see if you can get a couple of lamb bones. You then can use the bones to make some lamb broth for the stew. As for the meat, you can get already cut lamb stew meat, or you can hopefully get your butcher to cut the meat for you, the shoulder is best, but leg meat is also good for this. I bought a small leg portion and the butcher cut the meat off the bone for me and so I got the meat and the bone AND I didn't lose a finger or two cutting it myself; although you know, the butcher did have his hand wrapped in bandages when he brought the meat to me. And that one piece of meat had a bone in it ... you don't think? Nah! Now, if you have a good sharp knife and can do this yourself, you're all set; otherwise, buying already cut lamb stew meat won't condemn you to the Algerian part of the Sahara Desert with just two thimbles of water.

This stew is lightly spiced, so the spice flavors are more subtle and you'll have lots of vegetables to brag about eating. I've listed salt as optional in the couscous, as likely the broth and the butter both have salt, so you'll have to decide on that. Couscous is a pasta of semolina. In North Africa it is tiny bits of semolina, and it is usually called "Moroccan couscous," but in the Middle East it is larger and naturally takes somewhat longer to cook (Israeli couscous and Lebanese couscous).

 

Ingredients:

 

For the stew:

 

1 1/2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into bite size pieces

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped carrot

2 cups chopped zucchini

2 cups peeled and chopped potatoes

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 can chickpeas (14 to 16 ounce can, also known as garbanzo peas/beans), drained and rinsed

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped 

5 cups broth (or water)

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons chopped mint (or dried)

 

If you have lamb bones, start this ahead of time by just putting them into a pan and covering them with water. They don't have to sing, dance or tell jokes. Bring the water to a boil and then adjust the heat to keep the bones at a good steady simmer for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the various vegetables to have them ready to go. In a pot or large sauce pan, add the olive oil over medium heat. When hot, add the onion and stir, then a couple of minutes later add the garlic and the lamb. Brown the lamb, stirring and turning it. Add the carrot, zucchini, potatoes and celery, then add the cinnamon, cloves, turmeric, black pepper and salt. Stir to mix everything well, then add the broth (if using the broth from the lamb bones, it will already be hot). Bring the stew to a simmer, turn the heat to low or to whatever setting on your stove that will just maintain a gentle simmer for the stew. Cover the pan with a lid or foil and let simmer and let cook for 45 to 50 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and the chickpeas and stir to mix. Leave the lid or foil off of the pan and let the stew cook for another 30 to 40 minutes. If using dried mint, add it to the stew in the last 10 minutes of cooking. If using fresh mint, just stir it in at the end. Meanwhile, as the stew cooks during the last 15 to 20 minutes, prepare the couscous (see below). For each serving, serve the stew over a bed of couscous.    

For the Couscous:

1 1/2 cups Moroccan couscous

1 2/3 cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil 

(optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt

Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a sauce pan (with a lid). Add the butter, olive oil and salt (if using). Add the couscous and stir very well to mix. Let cook like 30 or 40 seconds, then shut off the heat and cover the pan with a lid for about 5 to 6 minutes. The broth should be completely absorbed. Fluff the couscous with a fork.   

WORD HISTORY: 

Comment-This word is used as both a noun and a verb. It is a prefixed word, with the main part of the word, "ment," being related to "dement," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French, and "mental," another Latin-derived word, perhaps borrowed via French, but with Latin reinforcement (or the other way around), and to "mind," a word from the Germanic roots of English. This goes back to Indo European "men," which had the notion, "to think, to have a state of mind." This gave Latin the verb "memin(isse)," which meant, "to remember." "Com-" and its variant form "con-" are common prefixes in Latin, and generally mean "together, with," or they serve to intensify the main body of a word. The two parts gave Latin "comminisci," meaning, "to devise, to invent," but also negatively, "to fabricate, to feign." This gave Latin the noun "commentum," derived from a participle form of "comminisci," and meaning, "a scheme, an invention, a fabrication," but also, "an interpretation;" thus, "a comment or commentary." This was taken into Latin-based Old French as "coment" (yes, one 'm'), also meaning "comment or commentary." English borrowed the word from French (but with reinforcement from Latin) in the late 1300s with the meaning, "an explanation, a written or spoken remark." Latin also had the verb "commentare" (earlier "commentari"?), meaning, "to think over in detail, to strongly consider, to write remarks and considerations about." This was borrowed by English in the early part of the 1400s, with the spelling likely influenced by the already borrowed noun.      

Algerian Sweet Couscous: Mesfouf

Couscous is one of the basic foods of North Africa and it can be savory or sweet. Couscous is a pasta of semolina, and it can be very fine grains of pasta (Moroccan style) or the somewhat larger type (Israeli style, also called 'pearl' couscous) or the pea sized (Lebanese style). The basic sweet couscous dish is common throughout much of North Africa, but there are many variations for the specific recipes. It is very popular as a breakfast dish during the month of Ramadan, a Muslim spiritual period that includes fasting from sunrise to sunset; thus, breakfast is eaten before sunrise. It is often eaten accompanied by a glass of  "leben,"* which is North African buttermilk; that is, fermented milk that has the butter removed, with water then added to thin it. Some North Africans also put buttermilk over the couscous to make a cereal type dish, with some even heating the buttermilk a little.     

Ingredients: 

 

1 1/2 cups Moroccan couscous

1 2/3 cups water

4 tablespoons melted butter + 1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup golden raisins 

1/4 cup chopped dates

2 to 3 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

chopped nuts like hazelnuts or almonds

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

 

In a sauce pan (use a pan large enough to hold the cooked couscous, as it will absorb the water and expand in size), heat the water to boiling, stir in the couscous, cook for about 30 seconds, stirring the couscous a couple of times, then put the lid on the pan and remove the pan from the heat. Let the covered couscous sit for about 5 to 6 minutes, then check to see if the water has been absorbed. Fluff the cooked couscous with a fork. Melt the butter (do not brown the butter) and mix in the honey and olive oil while the butter is warm. Add the melted butter and honey mixture, cinnamon, raisins, chopped dates, chopped nuts and chopped mint, mix well.

* In parts of the Middle East, the same term means "yogurt."

 

For the photos, I simply put some of the Algerian Sweet Couscous in a small tart pan to mold it and then transfered it to a small serving plate. Served with a glass of  buttermilk ...

WORD HISTORY:

Cinnamon-The ancient origin of this word for particular types of tree bark used as a spice is unclear, but there's a "possibility" it goes back to Malay, one of the languages of the Austronesian family of languages, which had a word like "kyumanes" or "kayumans." It eventually made it into the Semitic languages of the Middle Eastern area (Hebrew has transliterated "qinmon/qynmwn"), including Phoenician, which is likely how it was borrowed by Ancient Greek which had transliterated "kinnamomom," and also the shorter "kinnamom." Latin borrowed the word as "cinnamum," which then passed into Latin-based Old French as "cinnamone." English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1300s. Remember, spices of various kinds, including cinnamon, came into Europe from elsewhere, and thus originally, there was no word for "cinnamon" in Europe. Centuries ago, cinnamon and other spices from the Middle East, North Africa or elsewhere were of very limited supply, they were, therefore, very expensive. Close English cousin German has the substantially shortened form "Zimt," but Low German has "Kaneel," a word likely borrowed either directly from French or via Dutch, which had it as a diminutive from Latin "canna," which meant "reed;" thus also, "the substance that makes up a reed." So Low German's form is obviously a reference to the rolled bark of cinnamon looking like reeds. 

Spicy Mozambican Shrimp: Camarões Pili Pili

Mozambique, this former colony of Portugal, still has Portuguese influence; as for one thing, the Portuguese brought chili peppers from South America to the territories they colonized and that later became the independent country of Mozambique, but the influences have flowed in the other direction too. Compare this Portuguese shrimp recipe,* but in Mozambique they use very large shrimp (prawns). The shrimp for this in Mozambique are usually grilled or broiled, but you can use a skillet. Of course, you can make the shrimp as spicy hot as you choose, and if you don't make ''pili pili sauce," you can use readily available sambal oelek or just use some ground cayenne pepper. Serve over rice.

Ingredients:

1 pound very large or jumbo shrimp, tail intact 

1 to 3 tablespoons pili pili (piri piri) sauce** (you can substitute sambal oelek, or cayenne pepper)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil or peanut oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste (this is heresy, but you can use thick ketchup, but it won't be the same)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

You can buy fresh jumbo shrimp and peel the shell off, except for the tail, and then devein the shrimp, or you can buy already cleaned shrimp. Rinse the shrimp and let them drain on paper towels, making sure they are well dried before putting them into the marinade mixture. Meanwhile, in a bowl, add the pili pili sauce or other hot chili seasoning. I hope you'll make the pili pili sauce, and it's very simple to do. Add the chopped garlic, oil, tomato paste/ketchup, lemon juice and ground black pepper. Add the shrimp and make sure all are coated with the pepper sauce mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour, but 3 or 4 hours is better (mix the shrimp around a little occasionally). Use a large skillet, and you can just use a paper towel dipped in oil to rub and coat the skillet with oil, then heat the skillet over medium heat. I'm sure the relatively large amount of oil added to the marinade is used to keep the shrimp moist and to prevent burning and sticking, so the 1/4 cup of oil is not a mistake; in fact, I've seen recipes with even more oil. Add the shrimp to the hot skillet and cook them a couple of minutes on both sides until done (do not overcook). Of course, you can also cook the shrimp under your broiler, removing and then turning them to cook them on both sides. Serve with rice and some pili pili sauce on the side. A cold beer can cool the spicy effect on your mouth.

* Link to the recipe for Portuguese-style shrimp: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/12/portuguese-style-spicy-shrimp-camaroes.html

 

** For the easy recipe to make "pili pili" sauce (also called "piri piri" sauce), here is the link to the recipe:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/09/african-hot-pepper-sauce-pili-pili-piri.html

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Visor-This word is closely related to "vision," "video" and "visa," all words of Latin derivation borrowed by English ("vision" borrowed via Latin-based French), and it is also distantly related to "wit," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Visor" goes back to Indo European "weid/uyd," which had the notion "to see, to know from seeing." This gave Latin "videre," a verb meaning, "to see, to look at," and its participle form gave Latin the noun "visus," meaning, "a sight, a vision, an appearance, the process of seeing or looking." This gave Old French "vis," which meant "appearance;" thus also, "face" (one's appearance").^ This gave Old French "visiere" (modern French "visière"), meaning, "a protective part of a helmet that can be opened and closed" (German borrowed the word as "Visier" for the protective helmet part). The French dialect that developed in England among descendants of the Normans had "viser," and English borrowed the word in the first part of the 1300s.   

 

^ The same notion is present in German "Gesicht," which is literally "sight" (notice the close relationship of German "sicht" and English "sight"); that is, "that which is seen;" as in the expression, "He was a sight for sore eyes;" thus, it became the word for "face." English borrowed "face" (it's a Latin-based word), and it replaced English "ansien" ("that which is seen;" thus, "appearance, face;" the "sien" part now modern "seen").   

Spiced Apple Cocktail

You can always adjust the amounts to suit your own taste preferences. I use an apple brandy with a somewhat lower alcohol content, but with a nice apple taste. 

 

Ingredients (for 2 servings in tall glasses with some ice):

4 ounces apple brandy

1 1/2 cups apple cider (or apple juice)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (or mace)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 to 2 teaspoons sugar (depends upon the sweetness of the cider)

apple slices (with lemon juice sprinkled on if you're not adding the slices right away)

While you can make this without first heating the cider, spices and sugar, it's better when you add those ingredients to a pan and heat them over low heat, stirring often until the sugar dissolves completely (DO NOT BOIL). The heat helps to easily dissolve the sugar and it also helps to release the flavors of the spices. Let the mixture cool, then put some ice cubes into a tall glass, add the apple brandy, fill with the cider mixture and stir well. You can peel, core and slice an apple, if you'd like to add it to the cocktail.

 

 With some apple pieces ...

 WORD HISTORY:

Kern (2)-English has another word of this spelling.^ This is the noun used in printing, more specifically in type setting, and meaning "a letter or a metal letter piece of type that extends into the space of another letter." The origin of this word is unclear, but it may well go back to an Indo European form like "ker-thn," and with the notion of, "turn, swivel," although this is far from definite. It seems to be related to various words from Indo European, including from Germanic (the parent language of English), like Old Icelandic "hjarri," Old English "heorr/heorra," and Old High German "scerdo," all of which meant "hinge (of a door or gate)." It goes back to the Latin noun "cardinem," the principle meaning of which was "axis, pivot;" thus also, "hinge." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "charn," with the same general meanings, and this was rendered as "carne" in Old North French (Norman) and meaning, "angle, corner." English borrowed the word in the 1680s with the meaning, "a letter or a metal letter piece of type that extends into the space of another letter" ("a letter that projects or angles into another letter's space").

^ For the history of the other English word "kern," here is the link to the article with that "Word History:" https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/09/summer-fruit-salad.html

Law & Order Episode: Blood Libel

This episode originally aired in January 1996. This long running television series was set (and filmed) in the Manhattan area of New York City.

Episode Main Cast:

Jerry Orbach as Detective Lenny Briscoe

Benjamin Bratt as Detective Rey (Reynaldo) Curtis

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren

Sam Waterston as Executive Asst DA Jack McCoy

Jill Hennessy as Asst DA Claire Kincaid

Steven Hill as DA Adam Schiff

Jack Vinson as Matt Hastings

Chris Cooper as defense attorney Roy Payne

Santiago Douglas as Eddie Camarillo 

Lee Wilkof as school principal Dr. Sabloff 

A female art teacher, Sarah Aronson, is found strangled in her high school art room after hours. Detectives Briscoe and Curtis talk with her husband and associates and check into the possibility of the woman having had a boyfriend on the side, but they find no indication of any affair by Mrs. Aronson; however, Mr. Aronson does mention some phone calls to their home, but that when answered, the person hung up. When they talk with the school's principal, the detectives indicate that there was no evidence of a break-in, so the killer had to have a key and knew how to disable the school's alarm system, as no alarm sounded. The detectives also talk with another female teacher, a close friend of Mrs. Aronson, and she tells them Aronson had had some problems with a male math teacher. This information eventually leads to the detectives discovering that the math teacher, Richard Kovax, had been selling grades to some of the students, and that Mrs. Aronson had found out and she confronted him about it. Kovax promised Mrs. Aronson he would stop selling grades, but when he refused to accept anymore payments from students, he also told the students it was due to Mrs. Aronson. (You can now see that this could make Mrs. Aronson a target for any student desperate for a decent math grade to have a chance to get into a good university, but don't let your imagination run too far off just yet, as the real crux of the story will start shortly.) 

 

Lab tests of the blood found at the murder scene show that the murderer was caucasian and male, but also predisposed to diabetes. The teacher Kovax again denies he killed Mrs. Aronson (the school principal, Dr. Sabloff tells one detective he saw Kovax leave the school about an hour before the estimated time of Aronson's murder), but Kovax does tell the detectives Aronson had told him she was getting anonymous threatening notes left on her desk. The detectives get into Mrs. Aronson's locker at the school, where she kept gym clothes for when she played volleyball at the school. They find an envelope with the written threats to Mrs. Aronson with antisemitic expressions like "Jew bitch," "Hitler was right" and "mud people." One of the threats contains a violent drawing with a swastika, but it's not just any drawing, it's been done by someone with at least some artistic talent. (Is this symbolic of Hitler's art talent; that is, better than the average person, but not good enough to get through art school?) The detectives and an art expert look at drawings made by Mrs. Aronson's art students and they find a drawing of similar art characteristics from a student named Edward Camarillo. When the detectives question Camarillo, he gives them lots of attitude and he denies having made the drawing in the threatening message to Mrs. Aronson or his having had anything to do with her death, adding that he was working in his father's shoe repair store the evening of the murder, which is later verified by customers of the shoe repair shop. The detectives let Camarillo go, but they check the high school yearbook and find he and three other boys, all on the wrestling team, have three unexplained letters under their school pictures. At first they think it might be some kind of wrestling team lingo. Lt. van Buren and the two detectives write out the letters and they finally figure out the letters spell "KILL ALL KIKES" when assembled alphabetically by each boy's last name.* They question the three other boys, all of whom say it was just joking, but one, Matt Hastings, also defends it as "free speech," to which one of the detectives tells him that death threats aren't included in "free speech." The detectives let the principal know about the boys and their "letters." When the principal hears that Hastings is one of the boys, he tells the detectives that he had recently come to the school in the evening and saw Hastings leaving the school, which meant he had a key. He questioned Hastings about it, and he said one of the teachers had given him a key so he could work on a school project. The principal later asked that teacher if the story was true, but she denied it. The principal assumed the teacher was lying to avoid any repercussions for having given a student a key, but the principal let matters go, because Hastings is one of the top students in the school and the class president. 

 

When the detectives talk with Jack McCoy and Claire Kincaid in the DA's office, McCoy suggests getting the school to get a urine test from the members of the wrestling team, then see if the lab determines that Hastings has diabetes. Kincaid explains that schools are permitted to have athletes undergo urine tests for drugs and without a warrant. When the team is tested, the detectives ask for the specimen number for Hasting's sample and then later they go to the doctor in charge and they learn Hasting does indeed have diabetes, but that he and his family probably don't know it. He explains that when a student's urine test shows positive for alcohol, they run a further test to see if the alcohol was from drinking, or if it was produced within the person's body, as can happen with a high sugar level in people with diabetes. Hastings' test showed the latter. The detectives arrest Matt Hastings. With Hastings in custody the police get his fingerprints and they match to fingerprints on one of the notes left on Mrs. Aronson's desk, to which Hastings says he was just trying to frighten her about stopping Mr. Kovax from selling grades. They also match his blood to blood at the crime scene. Hastings' attorney moves to suppress the urine test, saying that while the law allowed for such tests to identify drug users, it wasn't intended to be allowed for murder investigations. The fact that the detectives specifically asked for Hastings' specimen number also showed this was not about drug use, and the judge suppresses the urine test and thus, overturns the whole case, because it was the urine test that prompted Hastings' arrest and this brought about the blood match and the fingerprint match to the threatening note, both of which are thrown out. Hastings is free ... at the moment. 

 

McCoy and Kincaid meet with DA Adam Schiff to determine where to go with the case. Kincaid says the police found white supremacy and racist literature in Hastings' room at his home, along with "white power" music, and she reads some of the nasty, or should I say Nazi, lyrics to the other two. Since the boy's father vouched for his son being home on the night of Aronson's murder, Schiff tells them to check the father's own alibi. Claire Kincaid talks with the boy's mother who was working on the night of the murder, but she says they were both home when she got home from work and that she trusts her husband and her son, "He's not like what they say in the papers. Those people think we're all anitsemites." Kincaid asks, "Those people?" And the mother says, "You know very well what I'm talking about." The mother goes on to say, "Look at that school. How do you think he feels? He's a minority." (Note: While I didn't hear it mentioned earlier in the script, but it might have been, this comment seems to indicate that the high school has a large number of Jewish students. Wow! And in New York City, who would have 'thunk' it? Now ideally none of this should matter, but we're talking about antisemitism, racism and hate here, not "A day at Disneyland." Also interesting, earlier the principal tells the detective that Hastings was elected class president. Hm, I wonder what percentage of the Jewish vote he got?) The mother writes off the yearbook message as her son "just trying to get a rise out of people." When Kincaid mentions the racist lierature found in his room, the mother says, "Matt reads a lot," and she insists her son doesn't have a problem with Jews, and that he dated a Jewish girl. This takes Kincaid to Hastings' former girlfriend who tells how he flattered her with comments about Jews being smart and such, but also that he was using her to build his image, and that he blamed Jewish students for spreading lies about him. She also mentions that she believes Hastings got the basis of his beliefs at home, and that his father once asked her about a family named "Abramson," as if all Jews somehow know each other. She says the father said the Abramsons cheated him out of his printing business and that it was their fault he didn't have enough money to send his son to prep school. Kincaid asks about Eddie Camarillo and the girl says that he and Hastings are good friend and that they would get into the school on weekends to lift weights. When Kincaid asks how they got through the locked door and the alarm system on weekends, she says that Eddie had a key made at his father's store.

 

Now the detectives bring in Eddie Camarillo again and tell him they know about the key and that was how Hastings got out of the school after killing Mrs. Aronson, but Camarillo denies he had a key. McCoy tells him he's an accessory to murder and Rey Curtis, who is part Peruvian and fluent in Spanish, tells him that when Hastings talks about "the mud people," he means both Eddie and himself. This brings Camarillo to say, "My people come from pure Spanish blood, white, Christian blood." (Damn! Now we know blood has religious identifiers. I think he needs to have a blood test.) Eddie tells them that Mrs. Aronson recognized his artwork on the one threatening note and confronted him about it and gave 'them' the chance to turn themselves in. (Interestingly, he says she called 'him' in, but then that she gave 'them' the chance to turn themselves in; so, he obviously told her that Hastings was in on it.) Hastings said he would lose his scholarship and that he wanted to talk with Aronson, so Eddie supplied the key, but, "I never thought he was going to hurt her." McCoy sends the detectives to arrest Hastings. 

 

Hastings' defense attorney comes to the DA's office and introduces them to the attorney who will handle Hastings' defense, Roy Payne, an attorney known as a Klan lawyer; "Klan," as in "Ku Klux Klan." He bluntly says he will present a case that says his client is being framed as part of a conspiracy to protect the "real killer," the teacher, Mr. Kovax, who is Jewish. In court Payne lays out for the judge his theory that a succession of Jewish people were involved in investigating or providing evidence against Hastings. When McCoy objects, the judge says that while the theory is offensive, he'll weigh whether the evidence Payne offers is valid before letting the jury hear it. Afterward Payne tells McCoy and Kincaid that it's a golden age of conspiracy theories, that such theories help people make sense of an irrational world and that if they go out on the street and ask 12 people what they think about Jews, "All I need is one" (for those unaware, the jury must be unanimous to convict). During jury selection, Payne asks one man if he's Jewish, but when McCoy objects, the judge has a private conference with McCoy and Payne and Payne says his client has a right to know if any Jewish jurors can set aside their bias. The judge has another "Susan Collins moment," and says it's all very odious, but bias is relevant, so he'll allow Payne's question. (For those unaware, Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, is noted for saying how troubled she is by Donald Trump's statements or actions, only to then support him. She voted not to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, saying that she was certain he had learned his lesson, a statement which quickly circled the toilet bowl and was flushed along with other doo doo.) Later, Adam Schiff tells McCoy and Kincaid that they aren't trying an antisemite, but rather a murderer who killed Aronson because she was about to stop him from getting a Princeton scholarship, "He would have killed here if her name was McGinty; make sure the jury knows it."

 

At the trial the technician from the lab tells how Hastings' blood sample after his arrest matched the blood found at the crime scene stored in the lab. Payne makes sure to repeat the technician's name, "Rosen," and the technician answers Payne's question about who brought in the blood sample as "Detective Briscoe." ("Rosen" is a fairly common Jewish name, although his family might have been from the North Pole for all we know, but the point is made that Payne is emphasizing the technician's background is likely Jewish.) Payne follows with a question as to the blood from the crime scene being "kept under lock and key 24 hours a day," but the technician says "not when someone is in the lab working." This brings Payne to ask if it was, therefore, possible that Detective Briscoe could have swapped Hastings' blood taken after his arrest for the blood at the crime scene. The technician asnswers, "Anything's possible." Now Detective Curtis takes the stand and testifies that he accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab with Hastings' blood sample and witnessed Briscoe turning the sample over to Mr. Rosen and signing the required form. Payne asks if Curtis was always with Briscoe in the lab, "joined at the hip," he asks? Curtis says he made a one minute call to report in to the precinct, which Payne says, "So there was a minute when you and Detective Briscoe were separated?" Curtis answers, "Yes." Payne then asks if earlier in the investigation that Curtis was completely convinced that Kovax was truly cleared as a suspect and Curtis says, "Not entirely," explaining that Kovax "had a motive and a window of opportunity to commit the crime." Payne askes if the two detectives discussed the case and then proceeded to look for other suspects, to which Curtis answers, "Yes." Payne asks if Curtis was overruled by his senior partner, which prompts McCoy to object and brings a withdrawal of the question by Payne. He then asks Curtis if he knows if Briscoe is Jewish and Curtis says, "I don't know, I never bothered to ask him." 

 

With the school's principal, Dr. Sabloff, on the stand, Payne goes over how Mr. Kovax was not just a teacher, but also a big fundraiser for the school, which Dr. Sabloff admits he likely mentioned when being asked by Detective Briscoe about Kovax in a phone call. Sabloff says he also learned from Briscoe that Kovax was a murder suspect during the call. Payne then spins this into further conspiracy by saying that Sabloff then conspired with Briscoe to cover for Kovax and that it all came down to implicating Hastings in the murder because Hastings' yearbook message "so inflamed" Sabloff as a Jew. Sabloff says, "Jews don't conspire with each other to protect Jewish criminals, it's ridiculous." Payne then cites the case of Jonathan Pollard, an American intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s. While McCoy objects and the judge stops Payne's rant, the information Payne wanted out before the jury can't be un-heard. (As I noted, Pollard was a Jewish-American, born in Texas, convicted of providing secret information to Israel. The case received much publicity in the mid 1980s, but when this episode of "Law & Order" was filmed, the case had been back in the news, as Israel had recently granted Pollard citizenship. Payne is trying to inflame anti-Jewish sentiment in any of the jurors. Remember Payne's earlier statement, "ask 12 people what they think about Jews; I only need one.") McCoy then asks Sabloff if he conspired with anyone about the case, to which he says, "No," and he further notes that Kovax was fired for selling grades. But is this enough? 

 

Briscoe is naturally upset that he's being used by Payne as part of a conspiracy, but McCoy refuses Briscoe's request to be put on the stand. Briscoe then tells McCoy and Kincaid that his father was Jewish, but his mother wasn't and that he was raised Catholic. (By the way, this was actor Jerry Orbach's own history: Jewish father, Catholic mother, raised Catholic.)  

 

Hastings takes the stand and Payne has him explain that he's tried to get along with the Jewish students, and that he even dated a Jewish girl, but the Jewish students told lies about him and the two broke up. And "they" kept him from becoming the captain of the wrestling team, instead choosing a Jewish captain for the team. "You see, I don't have a problem with Jews, they have a problem with me." (Then I think there needs to be a recount on that class president election. Somebody manipulated the ballots. Let's see... the Post Office? No wait, they didn't have mail in voting in schools. Obama did it! Well wait, he wasn't known back in those days. Hey, whichever hand of Detective Briscoe that's not Jewish did it. Yep, gotta be.) Hastings answers McCoy's question about the yearbook message as being a joke that was not his idea, that the other guys thought it up and he just went along. McCoy then asks about the threatening notes to Mrs. Aronson and Hastings says one of the other guys thought that up. McCoy asks him if Aronson's knowledge of him buying grades made him worry about his (Princeton) scholarship, but Hastings says he never thought about it. McCoy tells of a few of the Jewish students preparing to go to Ivy League schools, and wonders if Hastings was fearful of where he'd end up, and saying further, there wouldn't be anyone to blame this time, because Hastings bought grades and had sent death threats. Hastings insists he's being framed, but McCoy asks who is doing the framing. McCoy then suggests that maybe it's the same Jewish family who 'stole' his father's business. McCoy goes on that it was Hastings' own stupidity that put him into this whole situation, not Sarah Aronson, but this prompts Hastings to scream, "It was her fault. That kike was going to ruin my life." McCoy says, "As in the kikes you joked about killing?" 

 

Later the jury foreman tells the judge the jury is hopelessly deadlocked and the judge declares a mistrial. A new trial date will be scheduled. Hastings and parents celebrate, but later McCoy tells Adam Schiff that Hastings' original attorney is now willing to discuss a plea, because Payne got the publicity he sought and he's now hitting the "Klan lecture circuit," he won't be available for another trial. Kincaid informs them that one of the jurors said in an interview that the vote was 11 to 1 to convict. When McCoy asks, "I wonder which one?" Kincaid says, "Whoever it is, they blended right in," bringing Schiff to say, "What else is new? ... Next case."                

       

* The history of the term "kike" is uncertain, but perhaps the most accepted explanation is that Jews who immigrated into the United States from Tsarist Russia in the late 1800s and early 1900s signed immigration forms with an "O," not the traditional "X," which they misinterpreted to be a Christian symbol, as "X" does represent "chi" in the Greek alphabet, and thus is the first letter in the Greek for "Christ." It is most commonly represented in English with "Xmas," instead of the proper English form "Christmas." In Yiddish, the "O" was/is called a "kikel/kaykl," and it was so common, the immigration officials began calling Jewish immigrants by that name, which then was shortened to "kike." It is a derogatory term and I use it here only because it is central to the story.   

 

Photo is of the 2008 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment "Law & Order Sixth Year" DVD box set

WORD HISTORY:

Libel-This word is distantly related to "leaf," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "lodge," a word English borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, and it is more closely related to "library," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. It goes back to Indo European "leubh," which meant, "to peel off, to strip away or to break off a plant covering," which produced the noun "lubhro," meaning, "leaf, (tree) bark, rind." This gave Italic "lufro," with the same meaning. This gave Latin "liber," meaning "parchment, paper;" thus also, "written materials;" thus, "book." Its diminutive form, "libellus," meant "booklet, pamphlet, petition, written accusation." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "libelle," also meaning, "booklet," but also legalistically, "a written claim, a written charge (accusation) against someone." English borrowed the word circa 1300, originally with the meaning, "a brief written summary or declaration," but its legalistic meaning in civil law, "written statement of accusation against someone," provided the basis for the more modern meaning which developed in the early 1600s, "a false defamatory statement about someone," and its legalistic sense of "written false statement likely to do harm to a person's reputation and thus damage their life, earnings and well being." The verb developed from the noun in the 1400s, initially meaning, "to have written accusation(s) made against someone," with the "make false written accusation" meaning coming along in the 1600s with that meaning in the noun. The adjective "libelous" (UK English: "libellous") is also from the 1600s and meaning, "having to do with harming a person's reputation with defamatory accusation(s)."    

African Hot Pepper Sauce: Pili Pili (Piri Piri)

The territories that came to form Mozambique were visited by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498, with increasing Portuguese influence in the area as the decades and centuries passed, and with chili peppers being one of the influences contributed by the Portuguese to parts of African cuisine, including in Mozambique, which became independent of Portugal in the mid 1970s.* The Portuguese and the Spanish had gotten chili peppers in the New World, but it was the Portuguese and their developing vast system of international trade and colonial possessions that is credited with spreading the use of chili peppers to quite a number of places around the world. 

  

"Pili pili" hot pepper sauce is used in a number of African countries and recipes vary from just a few ingredients to additions like carrot, tomato, sweet red pepper and onion. The name is pronounced as if, "peely peely," and it comes from the Swahili term for "pepper," and it is also known as "piri-piri" and "peri-peri." The Portuguese version, often written as "piripiri" in Portugal, is a common part of Portuguese cuisine, both as a part of recipes and more commonly as a condiment to season and to add "heat" to already prepared foods. The Portuguese also use chili peppers to make a type of "hot chili paste." 

 

You can use dried chilies if you don't have fresh chilies. The recipe below yields multiple servings; that is, servings in the sense of relatively small amounts being used for burgers or other sandwiches, or to add to recipes for some heat and flavor. Store the sauce in a glass container (the sauce can react with containers made from other materials) with a lid and place it in the refrigerator, where it should keep 2 to 3 weeks. 

Ingredients:

 

4 very hot chilies (like habaneros, scotch bonnets or African or Thai bird's eye chilies)

4 less hot red chilies (like Fresno chilies or cayenne peppers)

2 large cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 or 4 tablespoons water

 

Wear kitchen gloves when working with chili peppers. Use a blender or food processor. Remove the stems from the chilies, slit the chilies open and remove the seeds, although I generally leave a few seeds remain from the medium hot chilies. Process all of the ingredients, except the water, until smooth. Heat in a non reactive sauce pan or skillet over low heat for just a couple of minutes. The sauce will likely be very thick, so add a tablespoon of water and mix it in well, then see if you need to add another tablespoon of water or more to reach a good consistency. Transfer to a container and store unused portion in the refrigerator. The sauce will keep for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. Many African pili pili sauces are not particularly watery or runny; that is, they aren't much like Tabasco sauce or most other American type hot sauces, but rather a little thicker. 

* The capital of Mozambique is "Maputo," but it formerly was called "Lourenço Marques," named after a Portuguese explorer. The official language of Mozambique is Portuguese, but several African languages, including Swahili, are spoken in various parts of the country.

WORD HISTORY:

Constant-This is a prefixed word, with the "stant'' part being related to quite a number of words (or parts of words) like "stand," a word from the Germanic roots of English, also the "-stan" part of countries or regions like "Pakistan," with this suffix going back through Persian to Indo Iranian, to the verb "stay" (halt, remain), a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English via French. The "con-" prefix is a common Latin prefix (also as "com-") with the general meaning "with, together." The main part of the word goes back to Indo European "sta," which meant "to stand." This gave Latin "stare" (not to be confused with the English word of the same spelling), which meant "to stand, to remain in place." The two parts gave Latin "constare," meaning, "to stand with, to stand together." The participle form, "constans," and its accusative case form, gave Latin the adjective "constantem," meaning, "to stand together, to stand firm, to remain in place, unchanging." Latin-based Old French took the word as "constant," and English borrowed the word latter part of the 1300s from French, but with likely reinforcement from Latin.  

Sauteed Fillet of Fish & French Remoulade

You can use any flatfish fillets for this, like flounder, sole, plaice or halibut (just for the halibut). "Sole" is a flatfish that can generally mean something different to different people. Fish names at times came to mean a specific fish type in one place, but a different fish type in another place, although they usually are similar types of fish.

This is an easy dish to prepare, but unless you have a good knife to fillet the fish, it's probably a good idea to buy fish fillets or have your fishmonger fillet the fish for you. I've kept the salt to a minimum, because I used salted butter.

Serve with roasted small red potatoes and French remoulade sauce. For French remoulade sauce, here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/08/french-remoulade.html

Ingredients:

3/4 to 1 pound fish fillet (I used flounder)
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons butter + 1 tablespoon regular olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
parsley for garnish 

Mix the 1/2 teaspoon salt into the flour on a plate. Melt the butter in a shallow dish. Add the panko breadcrumbs to another plate. Add the 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Cut some light "X" markings on what had been the skin side of the fish, do not cut too deeply into the fillets (this helps to prevent the fish from curling up when cooking). Dredge the fish fillets in the flour, then put them into the melted butter. Place the fillets into the panko breadcrumbs, then put the breaded fillets into the hot butter/oil in the skillet. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Serve with French remoulade sauce.

Sauteed flounder with remoulade and roasted potatoes ...

 

WORD HISTORY:
Flounder-This is the noun for a type of flatfish, but English also has a verb form, which may well be related, but that is not a certainty. The noun form is related to "flat," a word from Germanic, but in this case, a borrowing by English from Old Norse; it is also related to "plate," a word borrowed by English  from French, which had it from Latin, which had gotten it from Greek, which had it from Indo European. "Flounder" goes back to Indo European "peleh," and its variant, "pleteh," which had the notion, "to spread;" thus also, "to spread out;" thus, "to make flat." This gave Old Germanic "flunthrjo," meaning, "a flatfish," but a word that seemingly developed more in the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, producing Old Norse "flyðra" (=flythra) also meaning "a flatfish." Old Northern French borrowed the word as "flondre," but exactly how the borrowing took place is unclear. Old Norse speakers of long ago have often been called "Vikings," and they frequently raided along the northwestern coast of what is now France, even venturing up the rivers leading inland. Perhaps this brought about the borrowing? Anyhow, the Norman dialect that developed in England (brought there initially by the conquering Normans) had "floundre," and English borrowed the word, as "flowndre" and "floundre," in the early 1300s for the name of a specific flatfish. Low German is a close relative of English and it had "vlunder" ('v' pronounced like 'f'), but it is likely a borrowing from Old Norse, and there was much contact between Old Norse and Low German, and the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, common to both language groups, had lots of the flatfish given this name. German borrowed the word from Low German (late 1400s?) in various forms, which became the modern form "Flunder." Danish has "flynder," Norwegian has "flyndre," Icelandic and Swedish have "flundra."      

French Remoulade Sauce

Remoulade sauce seems to have started in France, but exactly when it started is a difficult question to answer, as I've seen references to the 1600s, the 1700s and the 1800s. The base of remoulade sauce is mayonnaise, and the French version has spawned a variety of remoulade sauces, including two very distinctive types, one in Denmark, and one in the United States, more precisely in Louisiana,* a state that has French influences, owing to the fact that it was once a possession of France; and indeed, it was named after French King Louis XIV.

Ingredients (1 cup +):

1 cup mayonnaise

1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon chopped chervil or parsley

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

1 tablespoon chopped capers

1 heaping tablespoon chopped cornichons (small pickles)

1 anchovy fillet, finely chopped

1 teaspoon lemon juice

pinch of ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together very well in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before using.

* For my recipe for Louisiana style remoulade, here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/08/louisiana-remoulade-sauce.html

 

WORD HISTORY:
Session-This word is related, through Indo European, to "sit," "seat" and "settle," all from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to "siege," a Latin based word borrowed by English from French. It goes back to Indo European "sed," which meant, "to sit." This gave Latin "sedere," which also meant "to sit, to calm down, to settle down in a place." Its past participle base, "sess," gave Latin the noun "sessio," meaning, "the act of sitting," "a seat;" thus also, "the act of sitting for a meeting to discuss matters." Its dative, accusative, ablative and genitive case forms, as well as it plural form in all cases had the base "session," with various endings. It passed into Latin-based Old French as "session," with the meaning, "a sitting for court, a sitting for a discussion meeting;" thus, "a sitting for an assembly or a committee." English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1300s with much the same meanings; that is, "a sitting for a regular or periodic court or a sitting to discuss and, or, to legislate on some issue or issues." 

Moroccan Spice Blend: Ras El Hanout

"Ras el hanout" is a spice blend of varying combinations originally from Morocco, but also common in Algeria and Tunisia. Some recipes for "ras el hanout" can contain 2 or 3 dozen different spices! It is commonly used in these North African countries to season lamb, chicken, fish, rice and couscous (a type of pasta of small granules of semolina).  

Easy to make, as you're simply adding various dry spices to a container and then mixing them together. I kept the spices to the more easily obtainable types, but some types of ras el hanout in use in North Africa or imported into other countries may contain some truly exotic ingredients like "grains of paradise," "orris root," "dried rosebuds,'' and others. 

Ingredients (makes 1/2 cup spice mix):

2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet/mild Spanish paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper, like cayenne
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Use a jar, can or other container with a lid. Add all ingredients to the container, make sure to break up any "clumps" of spices with a fork or the back of a spoon, put the lid on and shake the container very well to mix. Shake the container each time before using the spice mix.   

WORD HISTORY:  

Magazine-This word goes back to the transliterated Arabic verb "khazana," meaning, "to store, to collect or amass." This produced a noun "makhzan," meaning "storehouse, warehouse," and its plural form was "makhazin." Italian borrowed the word as "magazzino" (1300s?), meaning "warehouse," which then expanded in meaning to include "goods stored in a magazzino." French took the word from Italian as "magasin" (likely reinforced by French contact with Arabic in North Africa), along with the meaning "warehouse," which then expanded to include "military materials' depot." English borrowed the word in the late 1500s with the meanings, "warehouse, storage facility for ammunition." The meaning of "collection of written articles" comes from the 1730s, but the idea "seems" to date to about a hundred years earlier when lists were made of items in "magazine storage facilities." Circa 1870 saw the spread of rifles capable of holding multiple cartridges, the gun's chamber being called a "magazine."    

The Captain: Der Hauptmann

 

This 2017/18 movie has scenes of brutality that will likely make you cringe. It is based on the true story of German soldier and war criminal Willi Herold. When you read "war criminal," you will be surprised to then learn that Herold was a war criminal for primarily committing crimes against German soldiers, in what is certainly one of the more bizarre stories to come out of World War Two. And while I mention World War Two, the story is not about a famous battle, or about any battle actually. It is not filled with the names of famous generals, nor is the action of the story about the exploits of soldiers behind enemy lines or about heroic attacks on fortified positions. Just to set the scene, with the Allied forces moving deeper and deeper into Germany, individual German soldiers, or groups of soldiers, often became separated from their units and wandered around behind the front lines. Of course some (probably many) were deserters, as the end of the war was nearing, and fewer and fewer troops were willing to risk their lives for an outcome that was obvious. These men robbed and pillaged the communities in the countryside not only for food, but often for anything valuable they could carry off. Even as the German war effort circled the drain, Hitler and the Nazi regime spouted slogans about "final victory" and threatened soldiers and civilians with punishment, including death, if they didn't follow the path to "total ruin," a more apt description of the meaning of "total victory." To enforce "order" and to terrorize German military personnel and civilians into continued support of the regime, the Nazis used special courts to hold courts martial to "try" people and to usually execute the individuals within a short time of the "verdict."    

The film is in German, but it can easily be found with English subtitles, and it's likely available with subtitles in other languages. It stars Swiss actor Max Hubacher who gives a notable performance as Willi Herold, Milan Peschel as Freytag, Frederick Lau as Kipinski, Waldemar Kobus as Hansen, Alexander Fehling as Juncker.

The setting of the film is northwestern Germany in April 1945, just a couple weeks before the end of the war. A lone young man in the uniform of a German paratrooper is running across a snow covered field. Following not too far behind is a German military vehicle with several military police, many of them singing and firing rifles at the man. (We find out later the man's name is Willi Herold.) The head officer gives up his pistol for a rifle with a telescopic sight when the fleeing man runs into the forested area at the end of the field. The officer and the military police pursue Herold on foot, but they cannot find him. Herold comes across another German soldier and they break into a barn for food, only to be discovered. The farm people bring pitchforks and repeatedly stab the second man until he is killed. Herold gets away and he later finds an abandoned military vehicle stuck on the side of the road. Inside the vehicle he finds a suitcase with a new Luftwaffe captain's uniform.* The vehicle also contains some other odds and ends, as well as some apples. He tries on the uniform, and while it's not a perfect fit, it's very close, except for the pant legs, which are too long and uneven. Herold seems to have hit the jackpot; a new uniform to replace his raggedy corporal's uniform, an overcoat to help keep him warm and some apples to stave off his intense hunger. He begins to act out what it would be like to be an officer, with himself as the pursuer of others, just as he had been pursued. Another soldier comes along named Freytag and he helps get the vehicle out of the mud and he acts as the driver and takes Herold, whom he believes to be a captain, into a nearby town. The two go into an inn and Herold shouts "Heil Hitler" to the unenthusiastic older group of customers (younger men are in the military). He acts like a man of authority and he makes a list of names along with items stolen from them by deserters. He promises the Nazi Party will make reimbursement (German: "Rückerstattung") to them for their losses. He also promises to bring order to the town by stopping the looting and pillaging. All of this gains the support of the people there, and when Herold shouts "Heil Hitler" the next time, the men all spring to their feet, raise their arms in the Nazi salute and shout "Heil Hitler" in reply. All of this performance gets Herold and Freytag a dinner of roast beef, but the innkeeper becomes suspicious when an the overly eager Freytag grabs the two dinners from his hands. Freytag gives Herold his dinner and then sits and gobbles down the food just like the starved man he is, not like a man on a mission ordered by Hitler himself, which is what Herold has told the people there. Willi Herold himself makes sure to slowly eat his meal as the innkeeper looks on skeptically.

Later the townspeople catch a German army looter and the innkeeper tests the captain to see how he'll handle the situation. The captain walks up, takes a pistol and executes the man without another word. He then goes back to his room, where he is somewhat shaken by the incident. The next morning he and Freytag find some other men and the captain takes them into his group, claiming again that he has been commissioned by Hitler himself to report on the morale and activities behind the front lines. One of these men seems especially tough, but this might be what the "captain" is looking for. The group then comes across two soldiers with a 20mm flak gun, and they join the group too. The group is stopped by a troop of military police and a major test is now facing the captain. When pressed by the man in charge of the military police for his pay book,** he again relies on his story that Hitler has commissioned him for his assignment and he challenges the officer by telling him that he'll show his pay book if the officer shows his, and that he'll be sure to mention the officer in his report to Hitler. The bluff works and the man backs down, so Herold's cover as a captain is still safe. The captain's uniform and Herold's ability to act with authority show him many people will follow him, although his whole being as a captain under direct orders from Hitler is totally bogus, but it means survival, and the fulfillment of Herold's fantasy when he first donned the captain's uniform; that is, for him to be on the other side of power, power over life and death, as he had only experienced this from the perspective of the powerless when we encountered him in the very opening of the film, as Herold ran for his very life to escape the power of the military police.   

The military police and Herold's group go to a prison camp for German military prisoners, many of them deserters, but also some thieves and rapists. Nazi bureaucracy has various factions in control of different aspects of the camp and Herold is able to exploit the situation and essentially take control. He and a couple of his men go to one of the barracks, where one of Herold's men, a sadistic man, beats one of the prisoners to death. Herold knows the war can't go on much longer and that he and his troop of men need food and shelter, so he offers to "solve" the camp's overcrowding by executing prisoners. This wins him support from a couple of the camp factions who have wanted the prisoners killed, but who couldn't get the approval of one of the other Nazi factions. Herold again plays the "Hitler" card by telling one of the Nazi authorities in a telephone call that he has unlimited authority granted to him by Hitler himself. One of Willi's thugs begins executing prisoners himself, but then prisoners are used to dig their own mass grave and then executed in groups. Willi is becoming more and more taken with his role of power, and after one mass execution, a prisoner moans in agony in the mass grave after only being wounded, so Willi orders Freytag, the original member of Willi's group, but who is far less enthusiastic about Herold's growing ruthlessness, to climb down into the pit and kill the man, which he reluctantly does. Afterwards, as the camp guards, officers and Willi and his men gorge themselves on all sorts of foods and liquor, one of the Nazi officers tells Willi that on Hitler's approaching birthday there is going to be a huge military offensive launched to reverse the course of the war. He tells Willi that Hitler has said this, and that "the Führer does not lie." 

Allied aircraft later attack the camp destroying much of it and killing many of the remaining prisoners and guards. Herold gathers his men and goes into the nearby town where, under the phony guise of being one of Hitler's special "courts" with summary execution power, they kill the mayor who is preparing to surrender the town to the Allies. The group loots the town, and then they take over a hotel, where they begin a huge "party while we can." The army military police finally arrive and Herold and his men are arrested. Herold fails as he tries to destroy the page of his pay book showing that he is only a corporal, not a captain. and the military police get the "real" Willi Herold. At his military trial, Herold plays the "patriotism card," telling the officers hearing his case that he only acted in the interests of Germany and the German people. Even though the evidence clearly shows he impersonated an officer and committed numerous offenses, the right wing officers spare him, and decide to send him back to the front as the war nears its end. Herold escapes through a window and as he goes through a forest full of skeletons, we are informed that after the war, he was captured, tried and executed for war crimes.  

* The German paratroops were under the administrative control of the Luftwaffe, and they thus belonged to that branch of the German armed forces, but operationally; that is, in combat or on military assignment, they were typically under the command of the army.

** The German military used each soldier's pay book ("Soldbuch") as their identification and the book contained various information about a soldier, including promotions; thus, Willi Herold cannot let anyone see his pay book, because it would show that he was not a captain. 

 

Photo is of the Music Box Films 2018 dvd

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Leap-The origin of this word is unknown. "Leap" is related to "lope," a word from the same Old Germanic form, but in this case, borrowed from Old Norse. Old Germanic had "hlaupanan," which meant, "to jump, to spring," and it "seems" to be a word only in the Germanic languages, but where Germanic got the word is the question. The Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hleapan," meaning, "to jump, to run, to dance." This then became "lepen," before the modern version. The use of the word for "jump over an object for sport or to avoid going around it" developed in the 1400s. The noun form is from Old Germanic "hlaupa(n)," and produced Old English "hlep/hlyp/hliep" (dialectal), meaning "a jump, a spring in movement;" thus also, "the process of jumping." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "laufen," once spelled "hloufan" (to run, to walk, to jog, to flow), Low German "lopen" (run), and "tolopen" (to hurry), West Frisian "ljeppe" (to jump), Dutch "lopen" (to walk, to run), Icelandic "hlaupa" (to run), Danish "løbe" (to run), Norwegian "løpe" (to run) and "laupa" (dialect?... to run, to flow), Swedish "löpa" (to run).        

Summer Fruit Salad

Unless you live in the tropics, summer is the time for locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables here in the northern U.S. Here's a good fruit salad you can try. You can certainly add other fruit or subtract some of the fruit types. 

Ingredients (multiple servings):

1 cup bite size seedless watermelon chunks 

1 cup bite size cantaloupe chunks

1 cup seedless grapes (I used sweet sapphire grapes when I made the salad for this article)*

1/2 to 2/3 cup strawberries, sliced

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup red pear, cored and chopped, skin on

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped or torn into smaller pieces

1/4 cup fresh lemon or lime juice

2 to 3 tablespoons clover honey (or more, to taste)

Put all the fruit pieces into a non reactive bowl (preferably one with a lid, or cover it with plastic wrap). In a cup (I use a glass measuring cup), add the lemon or lime juice, the mint and the honey and mix well. Pour the dressing mixture over the salad and mix well to coat the fruit pieces. Remember, not only does the citrus juice flavor the salad, it helps to keep the fruit fresh longer. While not a criminal offense if you serve the salad right away, but it is best to cover it and to chill it for an hour or two first.

* Sweet sapphire grapes are dark purple seedless grapes that are oblong in shape. They are typically an inch or so in length.
 

WORD HISTORY:  

Kern/Kernel-English has more than one word "kern," neither of which is in common use. This form of "kern" here is simply a variant of "corn;" thus, it goes back to the Indo European root "ger," which had the notion, "wear down;" thus also, "to mature," which produced "gerhanom," which meant "grain;" that is, "a larger grown object 'worn down by maturity.' " This gave Old Germanic "kurnan," meaning "a small seed from a plant;" thus, "a grain or seed." (NOTE: "Some" believe there was a separate Old Germanic form "kernon," which they believe was closely related to, or perhaps even derived from, the Old Germanic ancestor of "corn.") Old Germanic also had a diminutive form, "kurnila/kurnilo" (??), and this gave Old English "cyrnel" ("a seed, a swelling or growth on or in the body"). This then became "kirnel" and "kernel." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Kern" ("seed, core, middle/center, nucleus;" for instance, the compound "Stadtkern"=core of the city, the city center), German once also had "kornel," "a small seed or grain of something;" Low German has "Karn" ("core, middle/center, stone from fruit), West Frisian "kearn" (core, middle/center), it "seems" Frisian once had "kernel," Dutch "kern" (core, nucleus, stone from fruit), Dutch also once had "cornel" ("coarse meal"), Swedish has "kärna" ("core, kernel"), Icelandic "kjarni" ("core, nucleus, kernel"), Danish "kerne" ("core, middle/center, seed"), Norwegian "kjerne" ("core, nucleus").    

Roasted Little Red Potatoes With Dill

These potatoes are a great side dish or even as a single lunch dish, served with some good bread. I've found that using the dill from the beginning of roasting simply causes it to darken and dry out or even burn. I add the dill when I turn the potatoes during roasting.

Ingredients:

1 pound small red potatoes, thoroughly washed and dried, then halved (quartered for larger potatoes)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
about 2 tablespoons dry adobo seasoning*
1 to 2 teaspoons chopped dill (fresh or dried) 

Heat the oven to 450 F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the potato pieces in a bowl, add the extra virgin olive oil and dry adobo seasoning. Mix well to coat all of the potato pieces. Arrange the potatoes on the baking sheet in a single layer. Roast the potatoes 20 minutes, then remove them from the oven and sprinkle some dill over them, then turn them over, sprinkle some dill over that side and return the potatoes to the oven until fork tender (about a total of 30 minutes or a little more). Optional: sprinkle on more chopped dill and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over the roasted potatoes before serving.

WORD HISTORY:
Smith-This word, often used in compounds over the centuries,^ is also the source of the family name. It goes back to Indo European "smei," with the meaning, "to cut and work with a cutting tool or tools." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "smiþa(n)" (þ=th) meaning "craftsman, skilled worker." This gave Old English "smiþ" meaning "one who works with metals or wood, a craftsman, a carpenter." This then became "smith/smyth." The earliest recorded use as a name in England was in 975. The verb form in Old English was "smiþian," meaning "to shape and create objects from metal or wood." This then became "smythen," by which time the meaning had narrowed to "metal work, often involving heat and hammering the metal to shape it." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Schmied," meaning "metal worker, blacksmith," and like its English cousin used for a family name (with variants like Schmitt, Schmidt), and the verb "schmieden" meaning "to work metal with heat and hammer, to design, to plan"), Low German has "Smitt" and the verb "smeden," West Frisian "smid"(?), Dutch "smid," with the same spelling used for the noun and the verb, Danish "smed" and the verb "smede," Icelandic "smiður," and the verb "smíða," Norwegian "smed" and the verb "smi," Swedish "smed," with the same spelling used for both the noun and the verb.   

^ For example: blacksmith, tinsmith, goldsmith, silversmith, locksmith, gunsmith, hammersmith and others.