Golden Girls Episode: Love, Rose

"The Golden Girls" was a comedy series set in Miami, Florida (it wasn't filmed in Miami) and originally telecast on NBC from 1985 through 1992. The basic gist of the show is that four women, 3 widowed and 1 divorced, share a house together and develop such a strong family-like friendship, they deal with and overcome their differing personality conflicts, as they support each other in life's challenges, including that of aging.   

 

This episode of "The Golden Girls" first aired in December 1986. Paul Dooley is great as Isaac Q. Newton. Dooley, who was born and raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia, is known for his portrayal as the father of the star cyclist, Dave Stohler (played by Dennis Christopher), in the 1979 movie, "Breaking Away."*  

 

Episode Cast: 

 

Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak

Betty White as Rose Nylund 

Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux

Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo 

Paul Dooley as Isaac Q. Newton

Colin Drake as Wilfred  

This episode has some good laughs, as Dorothy and Blanche convince Rose to run an ad in the personal's column to get a date. When Rose's ad fails to get any replies for two weeks, Blanche decides to help cheer an increasingly despondent Rose by writing a letter to Rose in answer to her ad. Blanche chooses the name Isaac Newton for her made up man. When Rose gets the letter her spirits rise, and Blanche admits to Dorothy that she wrote letter, but that brings Dorothy to question what will happen if Rose decides to arrange a date with the fictional guy. This prompts Blanche to answer that she'll write a letter that will have the guy saying he's moving to Saskatchewan, Canada. Dorothy reluctantly joins Blanche in writing letters to Rose, with Dorothy adding some poetry to the letters. Rose stuns her two friends when she tells them she has decided to meet Isaac, leading Blanche to ask Dorothy the spelling of Saskatchewan. hahaha  The girls are all going to a reception when Rose springs the news that she has invited Isaac to accompany her for the evening. She explains that he is moving to Saskatchewan in a matter days, but that she found one listing in the telephone book for an "Isaac Q. Newton," so she called and invited him to the reception. When he arrives at the house and introduces himself as Isaac Q. Newton, Dorothy jokingly says that he must get kidding about that (meaning his name), but he's a lot like Rose, and he has to ask, "(Kidding) about what?" Throughout the evening Rose mentions things from the letters she thinks Isaac wrote, but he naturally never knows what to say. When Rose mentions that she knows how he likes to dance, Isaac asks, "I do?" But he makes a failed effort at dancing, which makes Rose believe his letters to her were all a big joke (Isaac says, "Oh no, I have no sense of humor."). Dorothy and Blanche now confess to Rose that they wrote the letters to cheer her up. Rose is very upset and runs off by herself. Isaac hilariously says, "I'm glad you straightened that out, I was beginning to remember writing those letters!" haha  Rose locks herself in the ladies' room, and Blanche and Dorothy talk to her through the door to try to make her understand they only meant to cheer her up, not to hurt her. As the conversation goes on, a crowd of women waiting to use the restroom gathers, interrupted briefly by Isaac, who has to be told the area is for ladies needing the restroom. The girls finally convince Rose they meant no harm and she comes out of the restroom to the applause of the crowd. (NOTE: There is a secondary story line in this episode, which has Sophia pursued by an elderly Englishman. It turns out he heard a rumor that Sophia was a wealthy widow, but when he finds out the story is untrue, he quickly departs the reception, in spite of his insistence that he was not after Sophia's money.) 

 

* For more about "Breaking Away," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/01/breaking-away-showed-growing-up.html

Photo is of the 2005 Buena Vista Home Entertainment Season 2 DVD set

WORD HISTORY:

Tomb-This word is closely related to "tumulous," a rarely used word English borrowed from Latin. "Tomb" goes back to Indo European "tewheh," which had the notion of "swell, protrude" (from the idea of a grave having a mound of earth). This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "tymbos," meaning "grave mound, burial mound," which was borrowed by Latin as "tumba" with that same general meaning, and this passed to Latin-based Old French as "tombe," with the more general meaning "grave, burial site." This had a couple (at least) of renderings in the French dialect used among the Norman French speaking upper classes of England: "toumbe, tumbe," and English borrowed the word in those forms initially in the early 1200s, but the first decades of the 1300s saw this altered to "tombe" and then "tomb," where it has remained to this day.     

Brazilian Romeo & Juliet: Romeu e Julieta

This is a real tough recipe. haha  You'll need guava paste (Portuguese: goiabada, pronounced like: goyah-bawda), which is of course made from guavas, a fruit originally from the New World, but the Spanish and Portuguese took guavas back to Europe and elsewhere; for instance, the Spanish took guavas to the Philippines, and the Portuguese introduced the fruit to India.

  

This snack or appetizer was seemingly developed in the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais in the 1700s by Portuguese colonists, as Brazil was then a colony of Portugal. Remember, Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish. Minas Gerais has its own fresh cheese, but it can spoil after a relatively short time, so you're not likely to find it outside of Brazil, but you can use other types of cheese. I've made this with Greek feta cheese, Mexican Cotija, farmer's cheese and fresh mozzarella. The idea is to pair a somewhat "salty, tangy" cheese with the sweet guava paste. Guava paste is often available in Latino grocery stores, and "perhaps" in some supermarkets, but it is easily found online, and guava paste is not typically very expensive. By the way, in spite of its visual resemblance to jellied cranberry sauce, it is much firmer in texture than that easily found (in the U.S., at least) product.      

 

Ingredients:

 

queso fresco/fresh style cheese or other white cheese (see above for suggestions)

guava paste

toothpicks

 

Cut the cheese and guava paste into pieces of "about" 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. Put pieces of each onto some toothpicks and you're done. Hey, I said this was a tough recipe! Serve with some crackers, but I've also had it with toast. 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Guava-This word seems to go back to the Arawakan language family, which is from the native peoples of Central and parts of South America, as well as some of the Caribbean islands. Arawakan "guayabo" meant "guava tree," but it might well have also referred to the fruit of the tree. Spanish initially borrowed the word as "guayabo" in the early 1500s, which then was altered to "guayaba," and was applied to the fruit. This was then shortened to "guaya," and "guaba." English borrowed the word in the mid 1500s.  

Peppermint Patty Cocktail: Hot or Cold

This is a great chocolatey and minty cocktail, either hot or cold. You can certainly make these without alcohol for children, or for adults who don't drink alcohol, by using some peppermint essence in chocolate milk. You can adjust the amount of ingredients depending upon the size of the glass you use.

 

Ingredients for about a 6 ounce drink:

 

4 ounces milk

1 or 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

1 ounce peppermint schnapps 

1 ounce creme de cacao

whipped cream for topping

peppermint patty, chopped

 

For hot: heat the milk, but do not boil. Pour into a cup or mug, add the chocolate syrup and stir well to mix it in, then add the peppermint schnapps and creme de cacao and stir to mix; top with whipped cream and pieces of peppermint patty.  For cold: use good cold milk, add the chocolate syrup, peppermint schnapps, creme de cacao and a few ice cubes; stir well; top with whipped cream and chopped peppermint patty.

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Dull-This word is related to "dust," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "fume," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. It goes back to Indo European "dheu/dhew," which meant "vapor, smoke, dust." This seemingly produced the variant "dhewel," which meant "dim, cloudy, hazy." This gave Old Germanic "dulaz," meaning, "foolish, dulled in the mind, confused, mad/crazy." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dol" meaning "foolish," which then became "dul," and "dull." The idea of "foolish" led to "not sharp in the mind;" thus, in reference to objects, "blunt, without sharpness," and later to "not exciting, boring." (Note: In Old English "dol" was also used as a noun meaning "foolishness, stupidity.") The verb form seems to date from circa 1200 and was tied to many of the adjectival meanings; thus eventually settling on: "to lessen the sharpness of something of physical objects and of the senses or mind of living things, to lessen the brightness of something, to dim or obscure in some manner, to reduce activity." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "toll," meaning "crazy, mad," but also in every day speech "great, fantastic," as in : "Es ist eine tolle Party" ("It's a great party"),^ Low German at least had "dul," but I'm uncertain about a truly modern form, North Frisian has "dull/doll," but I didn't find a modern West Frisian form, Dutch has "dol" (mad, crazy, wild), Icelandic has "dulinn" (disguised, concealed), Swedish once had "dul/dol."

 

^ German "toll" meaning "great, super," is an example of how generally negative words can sometimes be used for positive emphasis, as in, "Dinner was awfully good," doesn't mean the dinner was bad, it means it was VERY good.  

Ice Cream Grasshopper Cocktail

Some say the "Grasshopper Cocktail" was invented in New Orleans circa 1920, but that it took a couple of decades to spread throughout much of the U.S. They aren't as popular (to my knowledge) as they were a few decades ago, and I first tasted this cocktail in the 1970s at a hotel restaurant (I'll guess 1976), where I had taken two of my employees to dinner, one of whom ordered a "Grasshopper." Your average bar did not have the ingredients to make such a drink. Understand, the use of ice cream for the drink was not common (they used cream), as far as I know, back then, but beverage companies are always looking for ways to spark interest in new versions of old drink recipes. As I recall, the "Grasshoppers" back then were usually in smaller glasses, not that you can't do that now.   

 

Ingredients (for each 10 to 12 ounce serving):

 

1 1/2 ounces green crème de menthe (it also comes in clear/white)

1 1/2 ounces clear crème de cacao (there is also dark)

1/3 cup milk

1 or 2 scoops vanilla ice cream

some ice cubes

 

Use a blender, add the ingredients and blend until you have something on the order of milkshake consistency. Pour into a 10 to 12 ounce glass with some ice cubes (you can stir in a little more milk to top off, if needed).

WORD HISTORY:

Insect-The "sect" part of this word is distantly related to "saw" (tool for cutting), a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to "segment," a word borrowed by English from Latin, and of course, it is related to a variety of words that also contain "sect," like: "bisect," "dissect," intersect," "sector," all words borrowed from Latin. The "in" part is a common prefix shared in various forms by Indo European languages going back to Indo European "en." Old Germanic and Latin had the same form, "in," although some derived Latin languages (Spanish, Portuguese and French) use "en," which is the general transliterated form for Greek, also. The "sect" part goes back to Indo European "sek," which meant "to cut." This gave Latin the verb "secare," which meant "to cut, to split, to cleave." The two parts gave Latin the verb "insecare," meaning, "to cut up, to divide by cutting." One of the participle forms was "insectus," meaning, "(that which has been) cut up," the accusative form of which, "insectum," was used as an adjective, but then as a noun meaning, "insect" (from the notion of the insect bodies being in segments). English borrowed the word as "insect" circa 1600.      

Portuguese Fried Fish Fillets: Filé de Peixe Frito

It's not uncommon for the Portuguese to simply fry fish in hot oil: no flour, no egg, no batter, just fish with head on in oil. Others may dredge the fish in some seasoned flour (some use corn flour), and then there is this method, which at first glance, you may think old Randy has wrongly typed into the text. What do I mean? Well typically, fish or other food items that are breaded are dipped into beaten egg, THEN tossed or rolled in flour or breadcrumbs. The Portuguese reverse the process by putting the fish into flour, then dipping the floured fish into beaten egg. When I first saw this, I was positive the author had made a mistake, but then I saw other recipes with the same process. It's all quite easy, made easier if you have a deep fryer, which will make the frying much faster, but you can put enough oil into a skillet to cover the bottom with about 1/4 inch of oil (more is even better, of course) and fry the fish that way, turning them over a few times to be sure they cook evenly. The fried fish fillets are often, but not always, served with Portuguese Tomato Rice,* and it's my understanding that some Portuguese serve the fillets with fried potatoes, perhaps in imitation of British fish and chips. You can buy pre-cut fish fillets, or you can cut the fillets yourself, but try to keep the fillets at about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thickness. The time needed to cook thick fillets will likely result in the breading being too dark or even burned, and Portuguese fish fillets are a nice light golden color.

 

Ingredients (4 or 5 servings):

1 1/2 pounds fish fillets (cod, haddock, sea bass and halibut are all good for this)

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sweet Spanish paprika (naturally Portuguese, if you have it)

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

3 eggs (might require another egg)

2 lemons, cut into wedges

oil for frying

 

Heat the oil over medium heat. While the oil is heating, the breading process is simple and you will only need two shallow dishes. Rinse the fish fillets and pat them dry with paper towels. In the first dish, add the flour, salt, sweet paprika, garlic powder and white pepper, then mix everything together well. In the second dish, add the eggs and whisk them briefly (we're not looking for frothy eggs!). Put a fillet into the seasoned flour and turn it to coat (don't forget the sides), shake lightly to remove excess flour and then dip the fillet into the beaten egg to completely coat it. Again, let the excess egg drip off. Put the fish fillet into the hot oil and quickly bread and add another fillet to the oil. Don't put too many fillets into the oil at any one time (I used a 10 inch cast iron skillet, and fried two fillets at a time). Turn the fillets a couple of times to be sure they are cooked through. The frying should take about 5 to 8 minutes for two fillets at a time, depending upon the thickness of the fillets and the temperature of the oil (if you use a deep fryer, it will likely take a couple minutes less time to cook them). Put the fried fillets on a platter lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil. Serve with tomato rice or fried potatoes and with a lemon wedge or two for each serving.    

 

* For the recipe for Portuguese Tomato Rice, here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2021/09/portuguese-tomato-rice-arroz-de-tomate.html

 

  

WORD HISTORY:

Program-This word is most commonly spelled "programme" in Britain. The main body of the word is distantly related to "carve," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to the many words with the endings "gram" and "graph" ("gram" is not always a suffix), which are of Greek origin (examples: cardiogram, anagram, grammar, phonograph, photograph, pictograph). The "pro" part of the word goes back to Indo European "per," which meant "in front, in advance, before," and this gave transliterated Ancient Greek "per(i), which also meant "before." The "gram" (gramme) part of "program" goes back to Indo European "gerebh/gerbh," which meant "to scratch," which back a few thousand years ago had the further notion of "writing;" that is, "to scratch on stone or clay tablets with a sharp instrument." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "graphein," meaning "to scratch, to carve;" thus also, "to write." The two parts together gave transliterated Ancient Greek" "prographein," meaning "to set forth to the public." This gave Greek the noun "programma," meaning "a written notice to the public," which was borrowed by Latin as "programma," meaning "a proclamation," and French took it as "programme." English borrowed the word in the 1630s from French (especially in the spelling "programme"), but with heavy influence from Latin. Gradually, the meaning began to move much more toward "a written agenda or plan of events," frequently regarding music entertainment, which later came into use for a schedule of radio shows, then later still, for television. The use of the word for computers dates to the end of World War Two and the use of "(computer) programs" dedicated to carry out specific tasks. The verb form came from the noun in the 1890s meaning, "to arrange in some order to be followed," and the mid 1900s saw the verb applied to computers for "to cause a computer or computers to take some course of action in an automatic way."    

Peruvian Fish Ceviche: Ceviche Peruano

"Peruvian Fish Ceviche"* is the national dish of Peru; but as such, there is no one recipe; thus, there are variations in the type of fish and chili pepper used, although there can be other variations. Also, the "side dish" of corn (maize) is most typically white corn, but often of the large kernel type, something that is not easily found outside Peru. Some people remove these large kernels from the cobs and then fry or toast them for this dish. The lime juice marinade "cooks" the raw fish in just a few minutes; so, you want to keep the fish pieces relatively small for the lime to penetrate the flesh of the fish. The chili pepper adds a bit of zest to the dish, without being mouth scorching.  

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

1 to 1 1/4 pounds halibut or sea bass, cut into bite size pieces 

1 red onion (baseball size), sliced into rings then cut into thirds or quarters

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 habanero chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped

juice from 8 to 10 limes (more if needed to completely cover the fish)

1 to 2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro (known to some as coriander), chopped

2 ears of white (or yellow or bicolor) corn on the cob (boiled or grilled)

2 sweet potatoes, sliced (1/3 inch thick)

butter lettuce (Bibb lettuce is a type of butter lettuce)

Rinse the fish under cold running water, then cut it into bite size pieces and put the pieces to soak for ten minutes in a bowl of cold water. In another bowl of cold water with a pinch of salt, put the onion slices to soak. Drain both the fish and the onions well. Put the fish and onions into a bowl, then add the minced garlic, finely chopped chili pepper, salt and lime juice (you need to have enough lime juice to completely cover the fish pieces). Mix well (I do it by hand), cover the bowl and let the fish marinate for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Cook the corn on the cob in some boiling water, likewise with the sweet potato slices (you can also grill the corn and sweet potato slices, if you like grilling). Cut the corn cobs into pieces of about 2 to 3 inches each. To serve: Place some butter lettuce on part of each plate and top the lettuce with some of the ceviche. Add a couple of slices of sweet potato and a piece a corn on the cob to each plate.

* "Ceviche" is also spelled "seviche" and "cebiche," and in the Spanish of Spain, the latter is considered proper. By the way, while there are theories as to the origins of the word, regardless of how you spell it, the word's history is very difficult, and at this time, I prefer to say its origin is "unknown."

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Halibut-This word for a particular type of flatfish is a compound of "holy" ^ and "butt" (flatfish), with the "holy" part added as the fish was often eaten on holy days. English has several words of the spelling "butt,"^^ although as it is used in the fish name, this version is related to the same form that gave English "buttock," as its general meaning is "the end piece (of something), often the thick end piece," and it is related to the word "beat," a word from the Germanic roots of English. This form "butt" goes back to Indo European "bheud/bhaud," which meant "to beat, to strike." This "supposedly" gave Old Germanic "butt," meaning "flatfish," although I'm more than a little skeptical about there ever having been such an Old Germanic word with the flatfish meaning; rather, I believe such a word was derived from the Old Germanic form that gave us "buttock;" that is, "but(t)a(n)," meaning, "that which is cut off," or, "the end piece, the short piece." It is interesting that "apparently" Anglo-Saxon (Old English) did not have a form of the word (this is one of the reasons I don't believe there ever was an Old Germanic form that referred to the flatfish), although it's always possible there was an unrecorded form of the word, and if true, it certainly wasn't prominent, which seems odd for these seafaring Germanic tribes from what is now the coastal areas of northern Germany, the northern Netherlands and southern Denmark, where fish, including various flatfish, were plentiful. After all, fairly large numbers of people from these tribes picked up and sailed to Briton. Old English seems to have used "flóc" to mean certain types of flatfish. "Butt," in reference to flatfish, appears in English around 1300, seemingly a borrowing from its close cousin Low German "butte." "Halibut" is from the late 1300s or early 1400s (it seems to have initially been "holibut," in English), when eating fish replaced the consumption of typical animal meat on certain Christian holy days. This seems to have been borrowed from the then Low German form "hellebütt."^^^ Relatives in the modern Germanic languages: German has "Heilbutt," initially as "heiligebutt," borrowed from the Low German form "hilligbutt," but then contracted to the modern form with influence from Low German "hellebütt" and Dutch "heilbot" (which is still the modern form). The North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages do not have forms of "halibut" nor of "butt," another reason why I don't believe there ever was an Old Germanic form (Note: Swedish once had "but/butta," but this was a borrowing from Low German). Unfortunately, the Brothers Grimm shed no light on these difficult words, as their entry is very sparse.        

^ For the history of "holy," this is the link to the article: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-twenty_47.html

 

^^ Several of the forms of "butt" are likely related, as most forms are from Germanic.  

^^^ It is important to remember, there is no standard Low German language, but rather there are dialects classified as being Low German. Hundreds of years ago, especially, most languages were developing standard forms, but dialects with different spellings and pronunciations were more the rule, rather than the exception; thus, lots of spelling variations. 

Portuguese Tomato Rice: Arroz de Tomate

This is a pretty common Portuguese dish. I've seen recipes that use both short-grain or long-grain rice; so, use what you have or prefer. You can use any kind of ripe tomatoes. I used Roma tomatoes, which tend to be smaller, so I use 4 tomatoes, rather than the 3 I have listed in the recipe.  

 

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings):

 

1 cup rice

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro (or parsley), chopped

2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt (optional if you use "salty" broth)

3 tablespoons olive oil 

6 or 8 black olives, halved

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and then saute the onion until it starts to soften, then add the minced garlic. Saute for about another minute or minute and a half. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook a further two minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the rice, coating the rice well. Now stir in the broth and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low or very low and cover the pan with a lid or foil. Cook until the liquid is just absorbed, remove from the heat and stir in the chopped cilantro (or parsley). Top the individual servings with some black olive halves.  

WORD HISTORY:

Monsoon-This word goes back to transliterated Arabic "wasama," which meant "to mark (something), to give a name, identity or description to something." This produced Arabic "mawsim," meaning "a time of year;" thus also, "a festival or holiday of a time of year;" thus also, "a season (time of year)." Portuguese sailors and explorers borrowed the word in the 1500s as "monção," with the "season" meaning pertaining to "the trade winds in the Indian Ocean." The next step has some uncertainty, as Dutch "seems" to have borrowed the word as "monssoen" from the Portuguese, but as the Dutch also sailed the Indian Ocean in those times, they could have borrowed it from Arabic speaking people in that region, just as the Portuguese had done. English borrowed the word from Dutch, but likely with Portuguese reinforcement, in the latter part of the 1500s. The winds associated with "monsoon" helped ships travel the Indian Ocean, but these winds also brought rains; thus, the meaning in English of "heavy rain," or "rainy season."    

Luxembourg Firestone Salad: Feierstengszalot

This salad seems to have developed in perhaps the 1600s or early 1700s as a way of using leftover beef. Lëtzebuergesch, the German dialect/language of Luxembourg, has "Feiersteng," standard German has "Feuerstein," and English has "firestone," originally as "fyrstan;" that is, "flint." The name of the dish "seems" to come from the slices of cooked beef representing, or looking like, pieces of "firestone." 

You can use leftover roast beef of any type, or you can boil or roast some beef just for this dish. When I made the salad for this article, the beef was so tender, even after being in the refrigerator overnight, that I really couldn't slice it properly, so I tore it into smaller pieces.

Often served with boiled potatoes and baguettes for a great lunch ...

 

Ingredients (4 servings): 

 

1 1/2 cups boiled or roasted beef in bite size pieces

2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

1/3 cup mild pickles, chopped

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup tomato, chopped or grape tomatoes halved

1/3 cup vegetable oil, regular olive oil or sunflower seed oil

1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt 

4 to 5 tablespoons heavy cream

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped parsley or chives

Cut or tear the beef into bite size pieces and put it into a bowl. Add the chopped onion, chopped pickles and chopped tomato, toss to mix. Distribute into individual salad bowls or onto individual small plates and top each with some hard boiled egg slices, then spoon some of the dressing (see further) over the salad and sprinkle each salad with some chopped chives or parsley. For the dressing: In a bowl, add the oil, mustard, tarragon, pepper, salt and cream. Whisk everything together until it thickens to the desired consistency.  

WORD HISTORY:

Firestone & Flint- Firestone is simply the combination of "fire" and "stone." For the history of the word "fire," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/07/german-question-part-one-hundred_13.html

For the history of "stone," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/10/german-question-part-forty-nine_27.html

 

Relatives of "firestone": German has "Feuerstein" (once spelled "fiurstein"), Low German has "Füürsteen," Dutch has "vuursteen," West Frisian "fjoerstienne" (?) 

 

"Flint" is related to "split," a word of Germanic derivation that had a form in Old English, which died out, but then was later borrowed from Low German to give us our modern word. "Flint" goes back to Indo European "splei/spley," which had the notion, "to separate from, to split off from." This produced Indo European "splind," meaning "split, cleave." This gave Old Germanic "flintaz," "seemingly" meaning "very hard stone split from rock." This gave Old English "flint," with the meaning, "hard stone," and then "hard stone that sparks to start a fire;" thus, "flint stone," a meaning that is still with us to this day. German once had "flins," "hard stone," but German used forms of modern German "Feuerstein" (fire stone), and "flins" eventually died out, Low German had "vlint" and "vlintsten;" that is, "flint stone" in the Middle Ages, but apparently these have died out, and the same happened to Dutch "vlint." Danish has "flint," perhaps from Danish (or is it a borrowing from English, or perhaps a refashioning of the Low German form? Danish and Low German have had much interaction over the centuries, including up to the present). Swedish has "flinta," and German borrowed "Flinte" from Swedish in the 1600s as the word for a flintlock musket, where the gunpowder for firing was ignited by flint striking a piece of metal (called a 'frizzen').       

Homemade Cajun Seasoning & Creole Seasoning

There isn't any one recipe for either Cajun seasoning, or for Creole seasoning; so, it seems to me that over time, the two have sort of grown together in some recipes, but not all. The two are similar, but not the same, with Creole seasoning having more herbs and much more paprika. Many recipes add salt to both, but I don't use it in either recipe; that way, I can use the amount of salt I want in any dish I'm preparing.

 

 

Cajun Seasoning Ingredients:

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

2 teaspoons minced dried onion 

2 tablespoons sweet smoked Spanish paprika

2 tablespoons sweet (non-smoked) paprika

1 tablespoon ground white pepper

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 or 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper (your heat preference)

2 teaspoons dried oregano

Put ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Store in a container with a tight fitting lid. 

Creole Seasoning Ingredients:

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon ground white pepper

4 tablespoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons sweet smoked paprika

1 tablespoon Ancho chili powder

1 or 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper (your heat preference)

Put ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Store in a container with a tight fitting lid. 

WORD HISTORY:

Cable-This word is related to quite a number of words, including: "capable," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, to "captive," another Latin-derived word borrowed directly from that language, and it is distantly related to "have" and to "heave," words from the Germanic roots of English. "Cable" goes back to the Indo European root "kahp," which had the notion of "seize, grasp, take." This gave Latin "capere," which meant, "to take, to seize." This produced the Latin noun "capulus," meaning "hilt of a sword, handle, coffin, burial chamber," the accusative form of which was "capulum," which became a word in its own right, initially meaning "hilt of a sword, handle," but then "a halter for cattle and horses," and from that it took the meaning "rope, lasso." This seemingly passed to Old French as "chaable/chable," and this became "cable" in Old Northern French (Norman dialect of French), meaning "strong, thick rope" (seems to have been used regarding strong ropes used on ships), and this was taken to England by the Normans and it was borrowed by English circa 1200. The 1800s saw the word applied to telegraphy and the lines used to transmit messages, and a message transmitted by such was called a "cablegram," which then was simply shortened to "a cable" (mid 1880s?). The word was also used for types of rail cars drawn by or transported along such cables. The mid 20th Century saw the word used for the transmission of television signals not requiring an antenna as "cable television," which then was often shortened to "cable."      

Shrimp Creole

Louisiana Creole food is a mixture of cooking from the people of various backgrounds who settled in Louisiana and who grew together to become an identity in their own right, with foods being part of that  combination of cultures. These people were of French, Spanish, African, American Indian (Native American), German and Anglo-American heritage. The history of Louisiana is rather complex, but generally, the 1500s saw the Spanish explore the territory, but it was in the 1680s that the territory was claimed for France and when it received the name "Louisiana" (French: 'La Louisiane') to honor King Louis XIV, the then king of France. The territory was not really the same as the modern state of Louisiana, but included areas well beyond that. French settlers came, and not long thereafter, German settlers came, but events of the European countries had an impact on the territory, as Spain gained control of part of the territory (including New Orleans) by agreement with France in the 1760s. Britain gained control of much of the French territory east of the Mississippi River as part of the settlement of the "Seven Years' War" in 1763, with the North American part of that war known as the "French and Indian War." The British expelled thousands of French settlers from eastern Canada, then known as "Acadia" (now basically 'Nova Scotia') following the war, and they often went to Louisiana, where they became known as "Cajuns" (a pronunciation of 'Acadians,' and some seem to have also spelled it 'Cajian/Cagian'), and Spanish settlers also came to the area. Slavery brought many Africans to Louisiana, as did immigration from the French part of Haiti. Napoleon made a swap of territories with Spain, bringing Louisiana back to French control in exchange for French controlled territories in Italy going to Spanish control. Napoleon intended to revitalize French colonial holdings in North America, but when that didn't materialize, he sold "the Louisiana territory" to the United States in 1803.

 

This dish is well known in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. The list of ingredients is pretty long, but these are generally common ingredients, with nothing terribly hard to find, and the dish isn't at all complicated. This is my own version. Serve with rice and salad... NOTE: The dish is also made by some with crayfish (some say 'crawfish'), but they are not always easy to find elsewhere.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings):

 

1 to 1 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 bell pepper, stem removed, seeded and finely chopped

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1 large stalk of celery, finely chopped (or 2 medium stalks)

1 jalapeño chili (about 2 1/2 to 3 inches), chopped

5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced

1 heaping teaspoon sweet paprika

1 heaping teaspoon smoked Spanish sweet paprika

1 tablespoon thyme

1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 large bay leaf

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 can (14.5 to 15 ounce) tomato sauce

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup mild chicken broth

2 teaspoons lemon juice 

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

2 tablespoons butter + 2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped parsley 

2 or 3 chopped green onions (scallions), including green, for garnish

lemon wedges for serving

 

In a 10 to 12 inch skillet, add the oil and the butter over medium heat, until the butter melts. Add the onion and saute for about a minute, then add the green pepper, celery and jalapeño; saute until softened, about 4 minutes. Stir in the minced garlic and saute a further minute, stirring the whole time. Stir in the sweet paprika, Spanish smoked paprika, thyme, oregano, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, chicken broth and bay leaf. Bring the broth to a boil for 1 to 2 minutes, then add the tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce and let come to a simmer, adjusting the heat to maintain a steady gentle simmer until the sauce is reduced to a fairly thick consistency. Stir in the lemon juice and salt, then add the shrimp, and cook until they turn pink, turn off the heat and stir in the chopped parsley. Serve over a bed of rice for each serving and top with some chopped green onions/scallions (which I forgot to add for the photos below ... 30 lashes with a wet noodle!). Add a lemon wedge or two to each plate. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fertile-This word is distantly related to "bear," the verb meaning, "to carry, to carry or transport a burden;" thus also, "to be pregnant;" thus also, "to produce," and it is also distantly related to "burden," and these words are from the Germanic roots of English; it is more closely related to "infer," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from Latin, and to "defer" and "differ," Latin-derived words borrowed from French, but with Latin reinforcement and influence, or perhaps the other way around.

"Fertile" goes back to Indo European "bher," with the notion, "to carry, to tote or bear a burden." The "bh" was rendered as "f" in Italic and it's Latin offspring, giving Latin "ferre," with the same basic meaning. This then produced the Latin adjective "fertilis," meaning, "produced in large quantity;" thus, "fruitful, productive." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "fertil/fertile," and English borrowed it in the middle of the 1400s, as both "fertil" and "fertile," with the latter winning out, although the apparent pronunciation of the other form is still used by some, but whether that is a remnant of the old form is doubtful.

Get Smart Episode: Hoo Done It

"Get Smart" was a comedy that spoofed the secret agents of the Cold War and the movies and television shows about those agents. "Get Smart" originally aired on the NBC network for its first four seasons, and on the CBS network for its fifth and final season. The show depicted the "good versus evil" battle in two organizations, "Control" and "Kaos." This episode is a parody of the Agatha Christie story "Ten Little Indians," made into the movie, "And Then There Were None." *

This has been one of my favorite episodes since it was first broadcast in November of 1966. In those times we were still living in the aftermath of World War Two, and the subject of that war was very popular in books, articles and movies. Most Americans were not afraid to say Nazis were bad, and there was no coddling of Nazis and fascists with statements like, "there were good people on both sides." Further, the idea that a fascist want to be dictator would ever sit in the White House, and that he would encourage underlings to storm the U.S. Capitol Building, with some shouting to hang the vice president of the United States and to kill the Speaker of the House, would have been challenged by both major political parties without hesitancy, and swift justice would have been administered to the fascist plotters involved, with NO HAND WRINGING or COMPLICITY by most, and likely all members of both parties serving in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Back then, however, there was still a fear of the rise of Nazis again ... IN GERMANY, NOT IN THE UNITED STATES! A number of Nazi war criminals were still running around loose, but they were being pursued in a number of cases. This episode of "Get Smart" has a reference to the war and to Nazis, but most certainly not in ANY positive way. See further below for the specifics.   

Episode Cast: 

Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86

Barbara Feldon as Agent 99

Joey Forman as Harry Hoo

Maureen Arthur as the Contessa 

Peter (Raoul) Frank as Omar Shurok

Tol Avery as Otto von Werner

Anthony Eustrel as Milton Conrad**

Bob Michaels as Ben Gazzman

Max and 99 go to a remote Pacific island to meet with a retired British colonel who has information about a KAOS plot. The island is overgrown with jungle and there's an active volcano that rumbles every hour on the hour. They meet the owner of the hotel and the grounds shortly after their arrival. His name is "Milton Conrad," a play on "Conrad Hilton," the head of the Hilton Hotel chain. When they arrive at the hotel, the retired British officer is killed when his birthday cake fires at him as he tries to blow out the candles. As the two Control agents begin to investigate the murder, Hawaiian detective Harry Hoo shows up. ***

The hotel employees leave on the boat going back to the mainland, but there are four other guests staying at the hotel and they are all suspects in the murder: Ben Gazzman,**** an adventurer, Otto von Werner, who claims to be a Swiss clock maker. When Max says that he must have been a Swiss neutral during World War Two, von Werner says, "I was never neutral, I  was just taking orders," and he lists his hobbies as "water colors, classical music and torture." Further, in an attempt to persuade his two skeptical questioners of his genuineness,  von Werner sets a large clock on the table, where a small Hitler doll comes out with outstretched arm and shouts "Sieg heil, Sieg heil." When Max says, "It's not 2 o'clock," von Werner replies, "Don't argue with him, if he says it's 2 o'clock, you'd better believe him." Then there is the Contessa Dorino(?) Montenegro who had been drinking Manhattans with the Colonel earlier in the day. Finally, there is Omar Shurok, who says he is Lebanese and a spy who spies on every country, except Austria, because his mother is spying on Austria.

Telephone service on the island goes down when someone cuts the lines, and 99 leaves the island to get help on an inflatable raft  she and Max had stored in their luggage (hey, they're secret agents! Haha), but in the meantime, each of the other suspects is killed. A note is found at the scene of one of the murders, supposedly left by the victim, but only with the letters "HH," which Max guesses could mean Herbert Hoover or Hubert Humphrey.***** Max and Harry Hoo assume the killer is in hiding on the island, so they decide to deceive the person in order to bring them out of hiding. Max and Harry draw their guns on one another, with each accusing the other of being the murderer. They end up exchanging fire, and they both slump over. A secret panel opens and out steps Milton Conrad. When he approaches the two bodies, they both straighten up and point their guns at him, but .... they forget that they had replaced the bullets with blanks for their ploy to draw out the killer. Conrad points his gun at them and the guys are in a real predicament until a shot rings out and Conrad falls to the floor. The shot was fired by 99, who wasn't able to reach the mainland in the raft and instead returned to the island. 

The British colonel had found out that the Contessa, Gazzman, von Werner and Shurok were all KAOS agents and he was going to report the information to Max and 99; so Conrad, also a member of KAOS, killed him, but then killed each of the others to keep them from talking. The stories in a lot of comedies don't always add up, but it's best not to take them too seriously; after all, they're comedies, relax and laugh. Don't stress yourself over such silly things as the plot not being perfect. 

* For the article about the movie "And Then There Were None," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2019/07/agatha-christie-story-and-then-there.html

** In the show he introduces himself to Max and 99 as "Milton Conrad," but the ending credits show the character's name as "Hillary Conrad." Perhaps that was to be the character's name, but it was changed to "Milton" somewhere along the line and somebody didn't get the memo. Haha 

*** The "Harry Hoo" character had appeared in a previous episode. The character was an obvious play on "Charlie Chan," and Harry Hoo wore white suits, something that was often, but not always, done by Charlie Chan.

**** The character of "Ben Gazzman" is a play on the name of actor "Ben Gazzara, " who was at that time starring in an NBC series called "Run for Your Life," where Gazzara's character had been given between a year and a year and a half to live by his doctor; so, he tries to get in all the living and adventure he can. The Gazzman character in the episode of "Get Smart" says his doctor gave him two years to live, and when he's asked when the doctor told him that, he answers, "1944," and the show is set in 1965-66. Hahaha 

***** For those unaware, Herbert Hoover was a former president of the United States who had died, at age 90, almost exactly two years before this episode was filmed. Hubert Humphrey was the then vice president of the United States when this was filmed, and he was a candidate for president two years later in 1968.

 

Photo is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 2)

WORD HISTORY:

Dire-This is an interesting word^ that goes back to Indo European  "dwei-ro," which had the notion of "fear, hate." This "perhaps" gave Latin "dirus,"^^ meaning "fearful, dreadful, ominous." English borrowed the word from Latin in the mid 1500s, with the meaning "boding ill for something, dread of bad consequences."

^ It is a distant relative of the "dino" part of dinosaur, a word borrowed from Latin,  which got the "dino" part from Greek, where it meant "terrible, something feared."

^^ I say "perhaps," because while Latin "dirus" is undoubtedly from the Indo European form, whether Latin had "dirus" directly from this form is debatable, and "dirus" seems not to have been a common Latin word, leaving open the possibility of some intermediate source that provided Latin with its form. The sheer obscurity of the word and its use in religious context for "bad omens" could have seen Latin get the word elsewhere, but perhaps from a closely related language, with the word passing into dialectical Latin until later in Latin when it became somewhat more common.