A Night to Remember (1958): Sinking of the Titanic

This British made film is named after the book written by American Walter Lord, and it is considered by many to be the most historically accurate movie about the disaster, although it too has some non historical content, with perhaps the most glaring non historical event being the opening of the film about the ceremony for the launching of the Titanic. Historically, there was no launching ceremony for the Titanic. I'm not sure when I first saw this movie on television and I'm not even certain if I first saw it on national network television or on a local station, but it was definitely decades ago.     

 

There was a large cast in this film, so I'm only listing a very limited number of the cast members. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Kenneth More was a pretty well known English actor, although he was naturally better known in Britain. This is just my own guess, but by the late 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, American television executives were looking to get their hands on movies, as films were highly popular (and thus, profitable) for the television networks and also local stations, which had pretty much exhausted the catalog of available films. Thus Americans began to see more and more British, and other European films, and my recollection is that this was how I became somewhat familiar with Kenneth More, with several of his movies being shown on television. David McCallum became well known in the U.S. in the 1960s for his role as Illya Kuryakin in the television series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," which also starred already well known British actor Leo G. Carroll and American Robert Vaughn. Tucker McGuire (her real first name was Anne, but her middle name was Tucker) was an American married to British actor Tom Macaulay, which might have helped her (?) land several roles in British films, including this one. Harold Goldblatt played wealthy American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, although Goldblatt himself was from England, not the U.S.     

 

Partial Cast: 

Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller 

Michael Goodliffe as Thomas Andrews, the naval architect for the Titanic

Laurence Naismith (born Johnson) as Captain Edward Smith 

Kenneth Griffith (born Griffiths) as radio operator Jack Phillips

David McCallum as assistant radio operator Harold Bride

Tucker McGuire as Margaret "Molly" Brown

Frank Lawton as managing director of the White Star Line J. Bruce Ismay

Harold Goldblatt as American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim  

This movie is pretty much a straightforward telling of the fateful night in April 1912 when the great ship struck an iceberg and sank some 375 + miles from Newfoundland, which at the time was not a part of Canada, but rather a British dominion, with the British monarch as the head of state (in 1912, that was King George V), but with Newfoundland, otherwise, being self governing. The first part of the movie shows us examples of the passengers aboard the Titanic, with a great number of poorer Irish people heading to America for a new life, but on the other hand, very wealthy people of rank and privilege occupying the elaborate first class area of the great ship. On Sunday, April 14, the Titanic's radio operator begins to receive reports of ice and icebergs from other ships as the Titanic reaches the general vicinity of the Labrador Current, a cold flow of ocean water that comes down from the arctic and often carries icebergs southward, frequently broken off from glaciers in western Greenland. (Note: From what I understand, and it makes sense, these icebergs can be at any time of year, but they are more common in like March through June, when the weather in the Northern Hemisphere shifts into spring, then summer, bringing warmer temperatures, which weakens the ice of glaciers and can cause parts to break off; that is, forming icebergs, which then drift southward with the current to the area around Labrador and Newfoundland; thus, the name of the current. The area is called "Iceberg Alley" due to the many icebergs that travel the current there, and these pose many risks to North Atlantic shipping. To complicate matters, the warm water current that comes up from the south is called the Gulf Current, and when the warm and cold currents begin to mix, it can cause fog and mist, sometimes dense, which makes icebergs even harder to spot.) 

 

The movie deservedly gives a lot of attention to a British cargo ship, the Californian (the British owning company named its ships after American states, which had just recently increased to 48 from 46 in 1912), which was traveling to Boston in the same general area as the Titanic, which was headed to New York City on the night of the disaster. The Californian comes upon a field of ice on the evening of the 14th, and the captain has the engines stopped rather than proceed into the ice. He also tells his radio operator to contact the Titanic, which is in their area, to report the ice and its location. When the radioman tries to carry out his orders, the radioman on the Titanic is busy with all sorts of private messages being sent ahead by individuals to New York City, and he cuts off the Californian's radioman and tells him to stay out because he's interfering with radio traffic. Earlier, the Titanic's radioman was so busy with all the personal messages, he took a message reporting ice, but the message got mixed into all of the personal messages and was not passed on to the captain.    

The lookout spots an iceberg right ahead of the ship, and the Titanic begins to turn to miss the berg, but it's too late and the ship grazes by the iceberg, with some chunks of ice falling on board the lower deck. Most passengers and crew don't notice the shudder when the collision takes place, nor do many people notice that the engines stop not long afterward. Captain Smith sends for the ship's architect, Thomas Andrews, to get his assessment of how serious the damage is. After checking the damage, Mr. Andrews tells the captain the ship will sink in about an hour and a half. Captain Smith orders the lifeboats to be readied and staffed and he has the radioman send out distress signals. The British passenger ship Carpathia answers the Titanic, but the Carpathia's captain let's it be known that his ship cannot be to the Titanic's location for a few hours. The Carpathia was slightly less than 60 miles away from the Titanic at that time. Meanwhile, the Californian sits just about 8 miles away (I chose 8 miles as a sort of compromise, as I've seen 5 miles, 6 miles and up to 12 miles). The radioman had gone to bed, so he never heard the distress calls (radio was relatively new and there were no regulations requiring constant radio monitoring aboard ships, and indeed, not all ships necessarily even had a radio, with the Californian having acquired a radio just a few months before this incident with the Titanic). The Californian's officers and crew see a big passenger liner not far from them, and it seems to be stopped, but they believe, that like their own ship, this big liner is stopped because of the ice field. The captain of the Californian goes to bed to get some sleep before he tries navigating this ice field in the morning. The Titanic's crew begins firing distress rockets and the crew of the Californian see the rockets, but they are perplexed by what they mean. One officer awakens the captain to tell him about the rockets, but the captain wonders if they might be a company signal by the big ship to let other ships from the same company know about the ice field. The captain orders that they try signaling the big ship by flashing Morse code light signals, and he then goes back to sleep. The light signal lamp is too small for the officers on the Titanic to read the signal, and they conclude it is just some flickering light on the ship. The Californian's officers and crew don't even know which ship they're seeing, but without the messages from the radio, it really didn't matter. Likewise, Captain Smith and his crew on the Titanic can see a ship nearby, but they don't know which ship, as they can't get through on the radio. (Note: Of course, while we know the historical end result with the Titanic, many have wanted to know, still to this day, how many people might have been saved if the Californian had come to the rescue. Remember, about 1500 people perished from the Titanic that night, and a rescue of such a number would have involved more than the Californian showing up and 1500 people simply somehow magically transferring to it from the sinking Titanic. The Californian was a cargo ship, but it could "accommodate" a hundred plus passengers and crew, although it had no passengers that night [the movie script has one of the Californian's officers mention the ship's passengers, but historically that is incorrect]. "Accommodate" is meant that passengers and crew would be somewhat comfortable, not with extra people crammed aboard in an emergency such as was taking place that night. It had 4 lifeboats, 1 gig, a type of rowboat usually with a sail that had to be put up, and a pinnace, another type of small boat, usually equipped with a sail and oars.* How many people the cargo area could have held, I have no idea, but the thing to remember is, the Carpathia was nearing the Titanic's location and it arrived about an hour and twenty minutes after the Titanic sank. Other ships were also on the way, but arrived at later intervals. It may not have been pretty or comfortable, but being crammed aboard the Californian would certainly seem preferable to becoming shark doo doo. It is my understanding, that in those times, not having lifeboats for all passengers was not uncommon on passenger ships, because the technology was thought to be enough to keep the ships afloat for a period of time [some likely call this "arrogance," or "tempting fate"], and that lifeboats would be used to shuttle passengers to rescue ships, then return to the damaged vessel to take more passengers to safety. All of the possibilities about the Californian is beyond the scope of this article, but it's something to think about, although not one person can be brought back to life. Perspective.)

 

The movie goes on to show the lifeboats lowered away and the Titanic tilting more and more into the Atlantic until the end comes and the ship disappears beneath the water.** A while later those in the lifeboats see and hear a rocket. It has been fired by the Carpathia. Meanwhile, aboard the Californian, the captain is awakened and told the big ship has moved on, as they still don't realize the ship they had been viewing a few miles away was sinking and that the rockets were distress signals. At one point earlier, one of the officers mentions how odd the ship looks in the distance, "like it's listing," but another officer attributes this to the angle of the big ship to the Californian. We see daylight and the Carpathia has picked up the passengers and crew members of the lifeboats. The captain of the Carpathia is told that the captain of the Californian has contacted them and wants to know if he and his ship can help. ***  

* I just wanted to include some basic information about the Californian, and Wikipedia is great for such information, and while its article on the Californian says the ship's lifeboats, gig and pinnace could hold a total of 218 people, that specific entry's source isn't noted, although the information is likely accurate, I am unable to say what the actual source of that info is. Just another note about the Californian, it was sunk by German U-boats in the Mediterranean Sea during World War One, with the loss of one life (see section on Californian in Encyclopedia-Titanica.org). 

 

** In the 1953 film, starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, the passengers gather and sing the Christian hymn "Nearer My God To Thee," and the version most popular in the United States is used. There has long been historical controversy over the last song on the ship, and one of the questions raised has been why would a British ship play what was basically an American song? And the passengers and crew all know the words, including the Straus couple, who were Jewish? (The song is a Christian hymn.) In "A Night to Remember," the band plays the British version of "Nearer My God To Thee," which is very different from the other version. As I noted, there has been a lot of controversy over the song, and some survivors claimed the last song was neither version, but rather a song called "Autumn." For movie purposes, I can understand why they chose the American version, as the dramatic music fits perfectly with what was already a dramatic and emotional scene. The American version has often been played at funerals and the scene in the movie just before the ship heads to the deep is a funeral setting.    

*** Interestingly, I found 3 different numbers for the total number of survivors: 705 (which is also stated in the movie), 706 (that's according to titanicfacts.net, which shows 492 passengers and 214 crew members) and 712 (this is listed on encyclopedia-titanica.org and also the figure given at the end of the 1953 movie "Titanic"). For the article on the 1953 movie, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/01/titanic-1953.html

 

Photo is of the 1998 The Criterion Collection DVD

WORD HISTORY:

Founder (this is the verb for "to sink")-This verb is distantly related to "bottom," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to the noun "founder;" that is, "one who sets up or establishes something," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French (but it is NOT related to the  word of the same spelling, "founder," nor to "foundry," both of which have to do with melted metal being poured for forming into shapes and sizes). "Founder" goes back to Indo European "bhundhm," which meant "base," with the beginning rendered in Latin as "f," giving Latin "fundus," which meant "bottom, base, foundation," which in French, a Latin-based language, became "fond," which also meant "bottom, base," but also, "ground." This gave Old French the verb "fondrer," meaning, "fall, fall to the ground, fall to the bottom;" thus also, "sink, sink to the bottom." English borrowed the word in the first part of the 1300s as "foundren," meaning "to fall to the ground or floor, collapse, send to the bottom," and Old French had the noun form "fondour (Anglo-French "fondur/fundur?"). The meaning of a ship sinking became more and more the most commonly used meaning in English, and the idea of "sinking" or "falling" gave the word many figurative uses, as in, "His problem with alcohol caused his career to founder." 

Wayans Bros Episode: Pops' Last Hurrah

For those unaware, "The Wayans Bros" was a television series that aired on the WB network from early 1995 until the spring of 1999. The show centered around brothers Shawn and Marlon (who are also real life brothers), who share an apartment in New York City. "Pops" is their "pop," but his nickname is "Pops" to everybody, and he owns a diner on the ground floor of a New York City office building. Shawn owns a newsstand in the lobby of the same building, Marlon works for him, and Dee is the building security guard, whose main station is in the lobby of the building.

 

This episode originally aired in November 1997 and it is another play on a misunderstanding, as Shawn and Marlon think Pops is dying.

 

Episode Cast:

 

Marlon Wayans as Marlon Williams

Shawn Wayans as Shawn Williams

John Witherspoon as Pops Williams

Anna Marie Horsford as Dee

Barry Wiggins as Dr. Tuttle

Stu Levin as patient on treadmill

Gloria Gaynor as GLORIA GAYNOR

 

Pops puts in the diner's order for meat for the coming week's specials and it includes chicken and liver, but the supplier also talks him into taking some tongue. Shawn and Marlon think Pops isn't feeling well lately, as Pops is a bit hobbled and he seems to be in pain and he even screams with pain one time when sitting down. The brothers make an appointment for Pops with a doctor and Pops tells the doctor he didn't want to tell his sons or anyone that he has been in terrible pain with hemorrhoids. The doctor gives Pops some suppositories and tells him he should be doing better in a week or two. The next day at the diner, Pops gets a call from the meat supplier who tells him his freezer went bad. Just then and unknown to Pops, Shawn and Marlon enter the diner. The meat supplier is explaining the situation to Pops, and Pops asks him, "Okay, tell me what's wrong." Shawn and Marlon think its the doctor talking to Pops, and then their father repeats, "My tongue has a fungus? ... My breasts are freakishly large?, and my liver is all rotten?" With no meat for his specials, Pops then says, "Oh man, I'm a dead man!" His sons think Pops is dying. 

 

They go to the doctor, but Pops had the doctor promise not to tell anyone about his hemorrhoids, so he tries to avoid answering about Pops' condition, except to say that he's done everything he can for Pops, and it will all be over in a couple of weeks. Shawn and Marlon are distraught at the thought of their father dying, and they go into the diner. Shawn asks Pops if he has been taking his medicine, and he answers that he forgot, so Shawn tells Pops they are going to stand there and watch him take his medicine, unaware the medication is suppositories. hahaha Then Shawn offers to massage the area where his father has pain and Marlon says they'll rub it with Icy Hot! Not only that, Marlon offers to kiss it to make it better!!! Pops tells them, "You two are the sick ones!"  hahahahahahaha! (The first time I saw this episode years ago, I laughed so hard, it took me a few minutes to regain my composure.) 

 

The brothers tell Dee their father is dying, and they try to come up with something special to do for Pops in his last days. Since Pops likes Gloria Gaynor and she is appearing in New York City, Dee suggests taking Pops to the show and she contacts a security guard friend who is working the show to get some tickets. At the show, Gloria Gaynor tells about a special fan who left his sickbed to attend her show, and she has the audience give Pops a round of applause. Gaynor calls Pops up on the stage, and this prompts Marlon to pat his dad on the backside and tell him to "get on up there," which brings an excruciating look of pain on Pops' face and Gloria Gaynor says, "Look at the pain on this man's face." She sings a couple of lines of her famous song "I Will Survive," as Pops and his boys stand with her on stage. She then says the two brothers told her about the terrible disease Pops has and she tells the audience she is donating the proceeds of the show to find a cure for this disease. Gaynor then asks Pops what deadly disease he has. Pops leans over to whisper in Gloria Gaynor's ear, but she can't hear what he says at first, she then hears what he says and she shouts "Hemorrhoids?" Shawn and Marlon realize their father isn't going to die, so they're happy, but Gloria Gaynor orders the security officers present to get Pops and his sons off the stage, but Pops asks about the donation Gloria Gaynor promised. 

 

The episode ends at Shawn's and Marlon's apartment with Dee presenting Pops with a cake in the shape of his behind, complete with hemorrhoids!     

 

Photo is of the 2019 Warner Home Video/Warner Archive Collection 4th Season DVD set

WORD HISTORY:

Apothecary-While it is difficult to see in modern times, this word is closely related to "boutique," a word borrowed by English from French, which had gotten it from Old Provençal (and its older history is the same as for "apothecary"), and "apothecary" is related to a large number of words, or various parts of words, including a distant relationship to "do" and, likewise, to "deed," both words from the Germanic roots of English. "Apothecary" is a compound with the first part, "apo," being a distant relative of English "after" and "of" both of which are from the Germanic roots of English, and thus to "off," which was derived from "of," and to the "ap" of "aperitif," a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English via French, and also to the "ap" of "aperture," a Latin word borrowed from that language. The "apo" part goes back to Indo Euopean "apo," which had the notion of "away, off," and it passed to its transliterated Ancient Greek offspring as "apo." The second part of "apothecary" goes back to Indo European "dhe," which had the notion "to place, to put, to make." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "tithemi," then "tithenai," which meant "to put or place," and this produced "theke," meaning "a container" (place where something is put). The prefix and the second part gave Ancient Greek "apotheke," meaning "storehouse" (a place where things are put away to be stored). Latin borrowed the word as "apotheca," with the same meaning, and this produced "apothecarius," meaning "shopkeeper," by which time, however, the word had begun to be associated with many herbs and ingredients used for medicine, as they were often able to be stored easily; thus, the beginnings of the meaning we still have today. Latin-based Old French rendered the word as "apotecaire" (later "apothicaire"), and English borrowed the word as "apot(h)ecarie" in the middle of the 1300s, by which time the meaning had become almost exclusively "one who stores ingredients for medications," and "one who stores and mixes ingredients for medicines," and which then gradually became "a druggist," often called "a chemist" in England and the rest of Britain.        

Indian-Manchurian Cauliflower: Gobi Manchurian

 "Gobi Manchurian" is a blending of Chinese and Indian cuisine and it's sort of a sweet and sour dish. It can be made relatively dry with fried cauliflower tossed in a relatively small amount of Manchurian chili sauce, a form that is often used as an appetizer. Or it can be made with much more sauce, which is termed "gravy" in India, and this form is often used as a main dish, which is served with rice and some type of flatbread so common in Indian cuisine. While both versions are good, I usually prefer the recipe with gravy, and so I tend to lean to having more gravy/sauce. This was only the second time I made this and I like it.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the fried cauliflower:

 

2 1/2 cups cauliflower florets

1 cup flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon hot ground red pepper, if you want to cut the heat, use Kashmiri chili powder, which is very red, but not terribly hot, or 1/3 teaspoon ground red pepper and 2/3 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup water (perhaps a little more)

1/3 cup corn oil or sunflower oil

For the sauce:

 

3 tablespoons corn oil or sunflower oil

1 cup green onions/scallions, chopped (including green part)

1 1/2 inch piece ginger, grated

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 green chili peppers (jalapeno or serrano are good), chopped

2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

2/3 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper (according to heat preference) 

1/2 cup thick ketchup

1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar (or white vinegar)

2 teaspoons sugar

2/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup water mixed with 2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/3 teaspoon salt

chopped green onions for garnish

 

Cut and rinse the cauliflower well in advance of preparing it; that way, it will have time to drain completely. It is actually good to take it and lay it out on some paper towels after rinsing it to let it dry. If you want the cauliflower to fry up crisply, you don't want any water on it. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, ground red pepper (or one of the substitutes I've listed above), salt and 2/3 cup water. Mix well, breaking up any lumps until the batter is smooth. If the batter is too thick, add more water by the tablespoon and mix until the desired thickness is reached, which should be thick enough to cling to the cauliflower, but not so thick as to cover the cauliflower with thick breading. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Prepare in batches by adding the cauliflower to the batter a little at a time to coat it, then add the cauliflower to the skillet. Fry the cauliflower, turning the pieces often, until it is golden brown and crispy. Remove the fried cauliflower to a plate with paper towels on it, then add more cauliflower to the skillet, until all the cauliflower is fried. You can empty the oil from the skillet and wipe the skillet out or use a different skillet. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of fresh oil to the skillet. Heat the oil over medium heat, add the green onion, garlic, ginger, and green chilies, saute until softened. Add the soy sauce, ground red pepper, ketchup, vinegar, sugar and water/cornstarch mixture, well well. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then add the ground black pepper and salt, stir to mix in and cook until the sauce thickens somewhat (you don't want it to be too thick), then add the fried cauliflower and toss it in the sauce until all pieces are coated and reheated. Garnish each serving with chopped green onions (scallions).

 

 

  

 

Word History: 

Stound-In general this is an antiquated word for English, but it is still around poetically and in some dialect usage in Britain. "Stound" is related to "stand" and to "stow," words from the Germanic roots of English, to "statue," a Latin word borrowed by English from French, and to "status," a Latin word borrowed from that language. "Stound" goes back to Indo European "steh," which had the meaning "stand." This gave Old Germanic "stundo," meaning "a standing:" that is, "fixed point," and further, "a point in time," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "stund," meaning "moment, point in time, period of time, an hour," and it then became "stounde," before "stound." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Stunde" (hour), Low German has "Stunn/Stünn" (hour), Dutch "stond" (hour, moment), Frisian once had "stunde," Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish all have "stund" (period, while, moment).    

Wayans Bros Episode: Pops' Secret

"The Wayans Bros" was a television series that aired on the WB network from early 1995 until the spring of 1999. The show centered around brothers Shawn and Marlon (who are also real life brothers), who share an apartment in New York City. "Pops" is their "pop," but his nickname is "Pops" to everybody, and he owns a diner on the ground floor of a New York City office building. Shawn owns a newsstand in the lobby of the same building, Marlon works for him, and Dee is the building security guard, whose main station is in the lobby. This particular episode first aired in February 1997 and the basic story is, Pops starts going out in the evenings and Shawn and Marlon think he's cheating on their mother. As I recall, we never actually saw Shawn's and Marlon's mother in any episode of the series, although she was often mentioned. 

While he was always good, this episode was a great performance by actor/comedian John Witherspoon, who died in October 2019, age 77. His real family name was Weatherspoon.

Episode Cast:

Marlon Wayans as Marlon Williams

Shawn Wayans as Shawn Williams

John Witherspoon as Pops Williams

Anna Marie Horsford as Dee

Iona Morris as Carmella

 

The storyline of this episode starts with the wedding anniversary of Shawn's and Marlon's parents just a few days off. Pops closes the diner early to go to what he says is a dentist appointment. The thing is, Pops is dressed in a nice suit and he has doused himself in some men's cologne, cheap men's cologne, but men's cologne nonetheless. Dee tells Shawn and Marlon that she thinks Pops is having an affair with another woman. The brothers' mother calls and says that Pops told her he's working late. Hmmmm? The next day Pops leaves the diner again dressed in another nice suit. The guys ask him if he's got another dentist appointment, to which Pops answers that he does, and that there's going to be "a little drillin,' " which Shawn and Marlon are sure they know exactly what kind of "drillin' " Pops means. So the guys follow Pops to a fancy hotel, where an attractive woman named Carmella meets Pops in the lobby. Pops and Carmella hug and give each other a kiss, and Carmella suggests they get a drink first, to which Pops replies, "I've been known to perform better after a little taste." Shawn and Marlon are stunned. The brothers decide to confront their father.

 

Carmella is drinking some coffee in the diner the next morning, and we learn that she has been giving Pops dance lessons, and Pops intends to take his wife ballroom dancing for their anniversary. Carmella leaves and Shawn and Marlon come into the diner and tell Pops they know what he's been doing and that they followed him and saw him with Carmella. It's a great scene, full of laughs, because the brothers think they know what has been happening, and Pops replies to them with answers that seem to fit their ideas, but the answers are really about the true situation, not the scenario assumed by the brothers. So, instead of the reaction they expect from their father, he tells them he's relieved they know, because it's tough to keep a secret like that. When Shawn asks how he could lie to their mother the way he has, Pops tells them he knows he shouldn't have lied, but that he did it to help his marriage. Shawn naturally questions how Carmella is going to help their parent's marriage, and Pops says, "You know, I've been kinda rusty lately." hahaha  He goes on to say that Carmella is helping him, so he can keep up with "your Mama." hahaha When Shawn asks how Pops thinks their mother will feel if she finds out, he tells them she won't care, because "half the fun is switching partners." hahahaha  Pops goes on to say that he and his wife were quite the swingers years before, and that his wife was really good, better at it than he was, and that he used "to sit back and watch the guys line to take a whirl at her." hahahahaha He follows that with, "You know, your Mama could take 2 or 3 at one time." hahahahaha The brothers are really upset and Shawn says, "That's sick," which brings Pops to say, "Nonsense, it's good healthy fun!" hahahaha  He says further that that's why he's taking lessons, because he used to practice in front of the mirror, but that he hates paying for it. hahaha  When Shawn challenges him about stopping, Pops insists he's not going to stop. Shawn and Marlon tell Dee the gist of what they believe the situation to be and Dee suggests that they talk with Carmella, and they agree. 

 

The brothers go to the hotel where they saw their father and Carmella together. Carmella comes in and sits down in the lobby to wait for Pops. The brothers go to her and toss around a lot of accusations, before they really identify themselves as Pops' sons. The insults are so bad, Carmella begins to walk out just as Pops is entering the lobby. Carmella leaves and Pops asks his sons what they did. After Shawn and Marlon tell their father that they know he is having an affair with Carmella, Pops tells them he hasn't been cheating on their mother, and that he has been taking ballroom dance lessons from Carmella to surprise their mother on their anniversary. The brothers are more than a little skeptical, so Pops proceeds to demonstrate his new dance skills in a hilarious dance scene with Marlon. When the dance is over, Shawn apologizes to his father and tells him their mother will love the surprise.         

 

 

 Photo is of the 2017 Warner Home Entertainment Wayans Bros. Third Season DVD set

WORD HISTORY:

Coffin/Coffer-The origin of these closely related words is unknown, but they go back to transliterated Ancient Greek "kophinos," which meant "basket." Latin borrowed the word as "cophinus," with the same meaning, but also "hamper" (that is, "basket with a lid"), and this passed to Latin-based Old French as "cofin" (yes, one 'f'), "seemingly" via Occitan, a Latin-based language of the western Mediterranean region, which includes parts of modern Spain, France, Monaco and Italy. The Old French term meant "basket, hamper," and then also "box," which then led to the additional meaning "sarcophagus." English borrowed the word in the early 1300s, originally with the meaning "box for money, gold, jewelry," and the "sarcophagus" meaning didn't become the main meaning in English until the early part of the 1500s. "Coffer" has the same history until it developed in Old French, as "cofre," with the meaning, "chest or box used to store valuable items," and this later led to the meaning, usually in the plural form "coffers" of, "the treasury or financial resources of a government, company or person." English borrowed the word as "cofre" in the mid 1200s. 

Haitian Cornflour Drink, Porridge or Pudding: Akasan

Akasan is a thickened drink made with cornflour, which is NOT to be confused with cornstarch, which is also called cornflour in some cultures, nor is it quite the same as the cornmeal typically used in the U.S. to make cornbread or mush or to make polenta in Italian cuisine. If you don't have cornflour, it should be easily found in supermarkets in the flour and meal section, or it might be in the Latino section, and you won't need to take out a loan to buy it, as it is reasonably priced. It also comes in various size bags, like 4 1/2 pounds down to 1 1/2 pounds, and it is sold under at least a couple of  brand names. It will naturally also be easily found in Latino grocery stores. Rather than a drink, some call Akasan a porridge, and I've also seen it referred to as a pudding (keep reading). Akasan is a common drink in Haiti, while often served somewhat chilled, it can also be enjoyed warm. Just to be clear too, you use canned EVAPORATED milk, NOT canned sweetened condensed milk. This was the first time I ever made this, and it is easy to make, although you need to whisk it a lot to prevent lumps. One of the reasons human beings put various types of flour or meal into liquids is to help thicken them. Understand, because this is made with cornflour, if you give it more than a little chill, it will firm up a good deal, and you will find out why those who call it a pudding use that term. In that case, you can eat it with a spoon, which is just fine, or you can try adding some milk to thin it out, but it will likely be lumpy. After I looked at many recipes for akasan, I decided to use the smallest amount of cornflour, which will also help to keep it from getting too thick. You can, of course, use a little more cornflour (like 2/3 cup, instead of 1/2 cup) and then eat the thickened dish as a porridge while it is still warm. I suggest making just enough to enjoy relatively fast. As I mentioned, this was the first time I made this, so I'm learning too. 

 

When the drink was invented is unknown, and where its name comes from is also something of a mystery, although the "san" part is thought to be from the French-based creole language of Haiti and means "one hundred." Haitian creole is heavily based upon French, but with many influences from African languages, native Amerindian dialects, Spanish and Portuguese, and it seems to have developed into its modern recognizable form around 1700.

 

 

Ingredients (3 or 4 large, or 4 to 6 smaller servings):

 

1/2 cup cornflour (the flour type, not the larger grain type)

2 1/2 cups water

3 star anise

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (depending upon your preference for cinnamon)

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 to 6 tablespoons sugar, depending upon desired sweetness 

Use a heavy bottom pan, and bring 1 1/2 cups of the water, star anise, cinnamon, and salt to a boil. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the remaining 1 cup water with the cornflour to make a kind of batter. Slowly begin adding the cornflour mixture to the boiling water, whisking constantly to prevent lumps or to break up any lumps that form. Reduce the heat to low or very low and continue whisking as the mixture cooks for 4 to 5 minutes. Do not let the cornflour stick. If it begins to stick, remove it from the heat immediately and keep stirring, then put it back on the heat (adjust the heat to the lowest setting). Take out the 3 star anise and add the evaporated milk, vanilla extract and sugar, stirring well to mix everything together and then remove from the heat. You can serve this right away while warm, or you can put it into the refrigerator for an hour or so to just chill it a bit before serving (see above about chilling).

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cent-This word is closely related to "centurion" and to "percent," both borrowed by English from Latin (see further below about "percent"), and to "century," a Latin word, "probably" borrowed from that language, but with French influence or reinforcement, although perhaps the other way around, and to "decade," a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek, and it is distantly related to both "hundred" and to "ten," words from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "dekm," which meant "ten," and its altered form "kmtom," which meant "hundred." This gave Latin "centum," with the same meaning, and this was rendered in Latin-based Old French as "cent." English seems to have first used "cent" in the mid 1500s^ from the expression "per centum" ("by the hundred"), but with the form "cent," presumably from the French form, which gave English "per cent," then combined into "percent," which led the meaning to "a one hundredth part of something." The 1780s saw "cent" by itself proposed for a monetary unit in the United States to represent "one hundredth of a dollar."

 

^ I say "seems" because many sources on "cent" have different times the word entered English, with some mentioning the 1300s (with the meaning "hundred," but it certainly had little, if any, chance of replacing the native English word "hundred") and others later, including the example I used above. Some say the earlier form was from Latin, others say it was from French, and with a number of Latin-based words borrowed into English, at times it is tough to tell the exact source, as the French forms are similar or even the same. I'm getting along in years, and I don't know how much time I still have, but I'm not going to spend it in consternation over whether English borrowed "cent" in the 1300s, the 1400s or the 1500s. I chose the 1500 example, because that is apparently when the word took on the meaning still with us today.       

Jamaican Sweet Potato Wedges & Sauces

Sweet potato fries or wedges are wonderful and they are well known in Jamaica, where they are often baked, not fried. Good fresh red or orange sweet potatoes are commonly used, and jerk seasoning, a Jamaican specialty, is a good way to add flavor to these crispy outside, soft and creamy inside sweet potato pieces.   

Ingredients (3 to 4 servings):

 

1 pound sweet potatoes (red or orange flesh), peeled

2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, canola oil or sunflower oil

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3 or 4 tablespoons jerk seasoning, store bought or homemade*

 

Cut the peeled sweet potatoes into wedges or narrower fries, if you prefer, and put them into a bowl, add vegetable oil and toss to coat the sweet potatoes. Stir together the jerk seasoning and cornstarch in a cup or small bowl, then sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potatoes and toss the wedges again to be sure all of the wedges get some of the spices. Let the wedges sit while you prepare to bake them. Begin to heat the oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay the sweet potato wedges out on the baking sheet. When the oven is hot, place the tray in the oven and bake the wedges for about 30 to 40 minutes, turning the wedges once at the 18 minute mark (you may have to adjust the time according to how thick you cut the sweet potato wedges/fries). Check to be sure the sweet potatoes are done with a fork or a knife. They should be fairly crispy. Serve with curry aioli** or perhaps some sweet and spicy mango sauce: remove the flesh of one not quite ripe mango (slightly larger than a baseball in size) and add it to a blender or food processor. Remove the stem and seeds from one scotch bonnet chili pepper (or habanero chili) and add it to the blender/processor. Add 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, 1 quarter inch sliced round of onion (that is, the whole slice and all its rings), 1 large clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon white vinegar and 3 teaspoons honey. Blend/process until smooth. 

 

* To make your own dry jerk seasoning mix, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2021/12/jamaican-jerk-seasoning-dry.html

 

** For curry aioli, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/01/curry-aioli.html

 

 Some sweet potato wedges with mango sauce and curry aioli ...

 

WORD HISTORY:

Isolate (isolated)-This word is related to "isle," a word borrowed by English from French, which had it from Latin, but the ultimate origin of which is unknown. Neither "isolate" nor "isle" is related to "island," a word from the Germanic roots of English, which began to have the 's' inserted in its spelling in the 1500s in imitation of "isle." "Isolate" goes back to the Latin noun "insula," which meant "island," but as noted, where this comes from is unknown, although a form such as "in salo," meaning "in salt water;" that is, "in the sea," has been proposed. From "insula" came the Latin adjective "insulatus," meaning "make into or like an island, island-like," and this gave Italian "isolato," meaning "lonely, cut off from (thus, 'isolated')," and this was borrowed by French as "isole," with the same meaning. English borrowed the word and rendered it as "isolated" in the mid 1700s. English dropped the ending to form the verb "isolate" in the 1780s/1790s, but kept the adjectival form "isolated" as the participle form of the verb. The further meaning of "to quarantine" for the verb, "quarantined" for the adjective, and "(a) quarantine" in the noun form "isolation," seem to date from the late 1800s. The noun form "isolation"  seems to have been borrowed from French around 1800, where it had developed just a few years before from "isole," although there is a case to be made that it simply developed as such in English, but with the French inspired ending, itself from -tion, cion, which were derived from Latin "(t)io."    

Sahara: Bogart & Company Fight The Nazis

This World War Two movie is set in the 1942 North African desert, as the German and Italian forces there are achieving major successes against the Allied forces seeking to prevent the Axis from capturing the Suez Canal. The movie depicts the main Allied troops as being British, but with French, South African and Sudanese also represented, and an American tank crew serving alongside. The movie was filmed during early 1943 in a desert area of southern California near the Mexican border. While the filming location was a desert, the production required tons and tons of sand to be spread out to make it look more like what the production crew wanted to represent a particular part of the desert in Libya.      

 

Actor J. Carrol Naish plays an Italian soldier who is a reluctant German ally, and who is more comfortable working with the Allies (there was certainly more than a little truth to this symbolic representation with many Italians of that era). During my life I seem to recall reading and hearing that J. Carrol Naish played more "ethnic" characters in movies and television than any major star, just as he played an Italian in this film, but in reality, he was of Irish descent (born in the U.S.), and in fact, his uncle had been an Irish official prior to Irish independence from Britain in the early 1920s. And since I mentioned Irish, this movie was obviously tilted more toward American audiences, and Irish-Americans have been a pretty prominent segment of the American population, especially in many metropolitan areas of the eastern half of the country. In the war era, the British and Irish were not necessarily on the best of terms, dating to previous British rule of Ireland. A long time friend of mine of Irish descent was easily riled if England or Britain was mentioned to him, and this was in the 1970s and 1980s (he was born sometime in the 1920s). His grandfather (or grandfathers?) had been from Ireland, and had tremendous animosity toward Britain. Anyway, one of the British soldiers is from Dublin, and it's just my guess that the film wanted to show that the British and Irish could work together in the face of the common danger of fascism. Not only that, the Irish soldier is a captain; thus, he outranks the other British troops and the Americans, too.  

 

Bruce Bennett plays American "Waco" in this film (pronounced as if "wake-o"), and he was the child of German immigrants, as his real family name was "Brix," but he took the stage name Bruce Bennett in the mid 1930s. He actually played Tarzan in the mid 1930s, but Johnny Weissmuller had already captured the public imagination with his performances as Tarzan by that point. And by the way, you'll see American actor Lloyd Bridges playing a British soldier in this movie. Bridges is likely best remembered as the star of the popular television show "Sea Hunt" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a show I watched regularly. Lloyd's sons Beau and Jeff are actors.     

 

Cast:

Humphrey Bogart as Sergeant Joe Gunn

Bruce Bennett as Waco Hoyt

J. Carrol Naish as Giuseppe (Italian prisoner)

Lloyd Bridges as Fred Clarkson

Rex Ingram as Sergeant Major Tambul

Richard Aherne as Captain Jason Halliday

Dan Duryea as Jimmy Doyle

Carl Harbord as Marty Williams

Patrick O'Moore as Ozzie Bates

Louis Mercier as Jean "Frenchie" Leroux

Guy Kingsford as Peter Stegman 

Kurt Krueger as German pilot and then prisoner

John Wengraf as Major von Falken 

 

In June of 1942, the three surviving American crew members of a US M3 tank, called "Lulubelle" by the crew, are serving in the Libyan desert during heavy Allied fighting against the German and Italian forces there. (Note: The U.S. supplied a somewhat modified version of M3 tanks to the British military in North Africa during the war. The American version was nicknamed the "Lee," while the British version was nicknamed the "Grant.") The crew receives orders by radio to retreat and as they withdraw they come across five British and Commonwealth troops (one is South African) and a Free French soldier. While one of the British soldiers, originally from Dublin, Ireland, is a captain in the medical service, the Americans have the tank, which is commanded by combat experienced Sergeant Joe Gunn; so, the British captain agrees to accept the American sergeant as the commander. The group comes upon a Sudanese sergeant and his Italian captive, who speaks heavily Italian-accented English. (Note: Sudan was in reality a British possession from the latter part of the 1800s, although "in theory" Egypt had a say in the governing of the territory.) With limited supplies, especially water, the Allied group debates whether to take the Italian prisoner along or whether to leave him to his fate in the desert. The man begs for his life and shows pictures of his wife and small child, but Sergeant Gunn doesn't even want to see the pictures. The British captain tries to persuade Gunn to take the Italian with them as the right thing to do, and most of the men seemingly agree, but Sergeant Gunn orders the tank to move forward without the Italian. The tank starts off, leaving highly visible tracks in the sand, and the Italian follows as best he can. Everyone is quiet and rather solemn, and Sergeant Gunn then looks out a hatch and sees the Italian struggling along in an attempt to stay alive. Gunn orders the tank to stop and he agrees to take the Italian with them. The men seem pleased. 

 

As the tank rumbles on, a German planes strafes the tank, but the crew is able to hit the plane with machine gun fire and the pilot parachutes out before the plane crashes. The men capture the pilot, a cocky Nazi, who doesn't want the Sudanese soldier to search him (the Sudanese soldier is black and the Nazi doesn't want him to touch him). Sergeant Gunn wants to turn the pilot over to intelligence officers for interrogation, so that means the group adds another man to its number. The group then learns that one of the British soldiers was badly wounded during the strafing. The Sudanese soldier leads the group to a well, but it is dry, and the situation is getting dire, as the Sudanese soldier tells them the next well is 50 miles away, and of course, there's no guarantee it won't be dry too. The wounded British soldier dies, and a message comes across the radio for all Allied troops to report to their main units to form a defensive line to keep the Axis forces from breaking through to the Nile and the Suez Canal. The group moves out to try to reach the next well amidst a sandstorm, but they finally reach the well where there is an abandoned building for shelter. The storm ends and the men go out to look for the well, as everything is now covered with sand. They find the well and it seems to be dry, but the Sudanese soldier goes down into the well and finds a trickle of water dripping from the rocks. The men send down any containers they can find and at last Sergeant Gunn allows each man to have three swallows of the precious water. Meanwhile, a German column has found the grave of the British soldier, but the Germans are desperate for water too. They have a Bedouin guide who tells them about the possibility of water at the well some 50 miles off, and out of their way, but the German commander knows he, his men and his vehicles need water, so off goes the German column, unaware they are heading to where the Allied group happens to be.  

 

Since the tank has had a lot of wear and tear from travel and the sandstorm, Sergeant Gunn wants to do maintenance on it. The Italian offers his help, telling Gunn that he was a master mechanic in Torino (Turin) before the war. Sergeant Gunn accepts the offer. Gunn mentions Mussolini to the Italian, and the man says that Mussolini talks big and says he has all of the answers, and that he has his slogans written on many walls all across Italy. The Italian says the slogans got into the minds of the people. A German reconnaissance vehicle with three Germans and the Bedouin is spotted moving toward the well area. Sergeant Gunn hopes to capture the Germans to get information. Inside the building, the Italian is put back with the German prisoner, who has heard everything that is going on outside, as he actually speaks English. He lets the Italian know he will tell him what to do. 

 

One German mans a machine gun mounted in the vehicle, and the other two Germans and the Bedouin leave the vehicle to approach the building on foot. Firing starts and the Bedouin and one German are killed and the other two Germans are captured. The British captain speaks some German and Gunn has him ask the Germans some questions, all as Gunn deliberately drinks water in front of the two thirsty men. One German remains uncooperative, but the other finally tells them that they are part of a mechanized battalion of 500 men and Gunn gives him some water. Sergeant Gunn tries the same with the other German and the man takes the water, says nothing and throws the water on the ground. In the meantime, the Sudanese soldier checks the well and finds the water has almost completely stopped dripping and he reports this to Sergeant Gunn, who tells him it won't matter, because they are going to leave, but then he thinks it all over and he wants the group to stay and delay the enemy battalion. Gunn tells them he realizes they could likely die and that no one may ever know what happened here. When one of the soldiers objects, Gunn goes into how the British withstood heavy German air attacks and how so many little boats sailed to Dunkirk to help evacuate the troops there, and how the Russians made a stand at Moscow, and how the American troops stood in the Philippines against the Japanese, and how the Chinese evacuated parts of their country in the face of the Japanese invasion. He gives the men some reasons to fight and they agree, regardless of any skepticism they may have. Gunn wants to offer the German battalion commander a phony deal. Sergeant Gunn will release the two German prisoners and have them tell their commander the Allied group will give the Germans water in exchange for food (of course, there really isn't very much water). In the meantime, Gunn will send one of his men in the captured German reconnaissance vehicle to try to find the Allied lines to get help. The captured German pilot hears the plan and he tries to yell to the two other German prisoners that there is no water, but he is stopped, and Gunn gives orders to kill him if he tries anything like that again.

 

The German prisoners are released and the Allied men find some land mines in the captured German recon vehicle, and they use them to mine the grounds leading up to the building area. They dig in the tank to give it added protection, as its gun is their only real firepower. Gunn sends American soldier "Waco" off in the recon vehicle to try to make it to the Allied lines. As the two German prisoners walk along hoping to meet up with their battalion, the one who had held out against giving information kills the other man, calling him a "damned traitor" ("verdammter Verräter"). Back at the outpost, the men see the German troops advancing to attack. The Allied troops let them get closer then they open fire. The intense fire, including from the tank, throws the Germans back, with heavy casualties. The first attack has been thwarted. Gunn checks on his men, but finds that the South African has been killed. The German commander shows a white flag and he and one of his men meet Sergeant Gunn halfway between the two sides. Gunn tells the German commander he'll trade water for guns and the mortar the German battalion has. The Germans are desperate for water, but no deal is reached. The captured German pilot decides to act and he tries to order Giuseppe, the Italian prisoner, to follow his lead, but Giuseppe will have none of it, and he delivers a sharp rebuke to Hitler and the Nazis: when the German pilot tells him the place will be taken by the German forces and then he will denounce Giuseppe as a traitor, Giuseppe says, "Denounce me then... Mussolini is not as clever as Hitler, he can only dress his Italians up to look like thieves, cheats and murderers. He can't, like Hitler, make them feel like that. He can't, like Hitler, scrape from the conscience the knowledge that right is right and wrong is wrong, or dig holes in their heads to plant his own Ten Commandments, steal from thy neighbor, cheat thy neighbor, kill thy neighbor..... It was for your Hitler that God, my God, created Hell!" This infuriates the German pilot and he knocks Giuseppe to the ground and then stabs him in the back with the screwdriver the Italian had been using to work on the tank. Though badly wounded, Giuseppe gets outside to tell the men that the German has escaped and is on his way to tell the German commander there is no water. The Sudanese soldier takes out after the German and kills him, but he himself is finally killed by German machine gun fire. As Gunn talks with one of the British soldiers, a German sniper kills the soldier. In the German camp, the soldiers are begging the commander for water, and he again goes to meet Gunn, who instead sends the Free French soldier, "Frenchie," out to meet him, as Gunn pretends to be bathing along with the British captain to make it look as if they have lots of water. No agreement is made and as the two men walk away, the German commander orders his men to open fire, killing Frenchie by shooting him in the back. The Allied guys return fire, killing the German commander. Meanwhile, the recon vehicle with Waco breaks down, leaving him to go on foot through the sand. Back at the well outpost, the Germans start another attack, and one of their mortar shells hits the well. One of the men is wounded and the British captain helps him inside the building, but another shell hits there too, killing both of them. Only Gunn and Ozzie, one of the British soldiers, remain alive and they prepare to fight to the end. Gunn calls out to the Germans to come and get the water, all they want, but he doesn't realize that the mortar shell brought water bubbling up out of the sand. The Germans throw down their guns and dash for the water. The two surviving Allies take them prisoner. 

 

Waco struggles through the sand, but finally a British reconnaissance vehicle comes along and the men spot Waco. After a while we see the column of German prisoners guarded by Gunn and Ozzie, as a British column approaches. The two men hear that the British and Commonwealth forces have held the Germans and Italians at El Alamein, stopping their drive for the Suez Canal. Sergeant Gunn looks at the dog tags of the dead men and he says they would want to know that the enemy had been halted. Their sacrifice helped in that effort. (Note: While the Allies halted the German and Italian drive at El Alamein, this desert rail station continued to be at the center of events in North Africa until a major British-led Allied offensive there in the latter part of October 1942, which resulted in the retreat of the Germans and Italians in early November. This was then followed by the Allied invasion of French Morocco and Algeria in northwestern Africa, and this sandwiched the German and Italian forces between the the British and Commonwealth forces pursuing their retreating forces from El Alamein, and the American, British and French forces advancing out of French Morocco and Algeria.)         

 

Photo is of the 2001 Columbia Pictures DVD ...

WORD HISTORY:

Sand-This word goes back to Indo European "samadho," but there are variations in how the Indo European form is rendered, but all beginning "sam," meaning "sand." This gave Old Germanic "sandam," which then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sand," where it remains all of these centuries later. Besides the "fine rock particles" meaning, the plural "sands" has long been used for desert and beach areas covered in sand. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German have "Sand" (all German nouns are capitalized), Dutch has "zand," West Frisian has "sân," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "sand," Icelandic has "sandur." The early part of the 1300s saw the development of the verb "sanden," which came from the noun. The verb long meant "to sprinkle sand over something," and this led to the further meaning "to cover over with sand." The meaning "to rub with a cloth or paper with affixed sand in order to make a surface smooth" seems to have developed in the mid 1800s, as this tool became increasingly popular.  

Curry Aioli

Aioli is a sauce of garlic and olive oil that developed in an area of eastern Spain, southern France and northwestern Italy, with raw egg added in some versions, which then later was often simply replaced with mayonnaise. People from the Indian Subcontinent began emigrating to many parts of the Caribbean long ago, especially in the 1800s and early 1900s, and of course, they brought along their foods and recipes, which then influenced the cuisines of these islands. Such is "curry aioli," with more traditional aioli given added spices. This curry aioli is great with french fries or sweet potato fries, with a vegetable tray, with roasted veggies, or in place of mayonnaise on sandwiches.  

 

Ingredients:

 

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 large (or 2 medium) cloves of garlic, minced

1 pinch cayenne pepper (or Indian chili powder)

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

 

Mix together all of the ingredients. You can use the curry aioli right away, but if you have time, it is better if you cover it and refrigerate it for at least an hour, but longer is even better. Stir the curry aioli before using. 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Chain-This word goes back to the Indo European root "kat," which had the notion of "twist, weave, connect one thing to another by twisting or weaving." This gave Latin the noun "catena," which meant "chain." Old French, a Latin-based language, had the word as "chaeine," which then became "cheyne/chaine," and English borrowed it from French in the late 1200s or early 1300s. The idea of links in a chain also provided the meaning "things in a series," although "series" itself often occupies that ground in modern times, but still that idea provided the meaning "series of stores selling the same basic merchandise with the same overall owner." The verb form was derived from the noun seemingly just prior to 1400, initially with the meaning "to block off an area with a chain," but later also, "to bind someone or something with chains to limit or prevent easy movement." German, a close relative of English, borrowed the word from Latin "catena" as "Kette" (chain, necklace, track on a bulldozer or military tank).

West Bengali Potatoes in Gravy: Darjeeling Aloo Dum

Darjeeling is a city in West Bengal in northeastern India. The city is best known for the tea grown and processed there, mysteriously called "Darjeeling tea," and how they came up with that name is well beyond my level of comprehension, as I haven't figured out where Black Forest Cake got its name.   

 

I already did Nepali aloo dum,* but this style here is more associated with the city of Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, and you do need a special ingredient for this curry, and that is "black cumin," also known as "nigella" or "kalonji," which are black seeds from a plant of the buttercup family. Black cumin is available in many spice shops and certainly in Indian/Pakistani grocery stores (perhaps in some Middle Eastern stores, too). This version of "Aloo Dum" uses more "gravy;" that is, the curry sauce for the potatoes, but the recipe and the preparation is quite simple. I love this dish!

 

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings):

 

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 can (14.5 to 15 ounces) tomato sauce** + 1 medium ripe Roma tomato, chopped

2 teaspoons black cumin seeds

1 or 2 whole fresh green chilies (jalapeno, serrano or unripened cayenne peppers are fine)

1 fresh red chili (or dried red chili)

1 heaping teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin (not to be confused with black cumin) 

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

(if needed) 1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces of "about" 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide (this is just to give you the idea and this needn't be precise, so please, no measuring tape required). Boil the potatoes in some salted water until just cooked through, not until they are soft and mushy. While the potatoes cook, in a skillet over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is heated, add the green chilies and saute for a minute or two, then add the tomato sauce and the one chopped tomato. While the sauce heats up, mash the tomato pieces a little (the tomato is to give the sauce some texture, so don't obliterate it), add the red chili, black cumin, salt, turmeric, ground coriander and ground cumin. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 or 6 minutes, stirring occasionally (you can cover the skillet to prevent spattering, if you'd like, just be sure to keep checking the sauce and giving it a stir). If the gravy is too thick, use some water to thin it out (of the many times I've prepared this dish, only once did I feel the need to add water to thin the sauce). Stir in the chopped cilantro. Serve with naan or chapati bread to dip in the sauce.

 

* For the recipe for Nepalese Aloo Dum, here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2019/08/nepalese-spicy-potatoes-aloo-dum.html  (Note: In recent years, I've had neighbors who are immigrants from Nepal; very nice people, and our neighborhood now has a Nepali/Indian restaurant. LOVE IT!) 

** I'm streamlining this by using tomato sauce, as in India fresh or canned tomatoes would more typically be used and then blended to make tomato sauce.  

 

WORD HISTORY:

Migrate/Migration-These closely related words are related to "permute" and "mutation," words of Latin derivation borrowed from Latin with French reinforcement, or the other way around, and to "permeate," another Latin word borrowed directly from that language. The basic form goes back to the Indo European root "mey/mei," with the notion of "change, change location." This then seems to have had an expanded form like "migwro/migwra," which gave Old Italic "migro," which gave Latin the verb "migrare,"  meaning "to move around, to leave one place for another." One of the participle forms was "migratus," and this was the basis of the English borrowing in the latter part of the 1600s for "migrate." In Latin, the noun had been formed as "migratio," with the meaning "a change of living location," seemingly more in the sense with a longer distance of travel involved. English borrowed the word as "migration" in the early 1600s from Latin with French reinforcement.

Titanic: 1953

I first saw this film in the early 1960s when it initially aired on television on NBC's "Saturday Night at the Movies," and the movie sparked an interest within me about the history of the ill fated ocean liner. Keep in mind, when this movie was made (1952) and released to theaters (1953), there was not a great deal of information to be easily found about the Titanic disaster. It was not long after the movie was made that American historian Walter Lord did a lot of research on the ship's sinking, which he assembled into a book called "A Night to Remember," released in late 1955. This book was used as the basis for a British movie of the same name released in 1958. That movie was much more of a re-creation of the known historical events of the Titanic disaster. The 1953 film uses a fictional story and many fictional characters, supplemented by actual historical characters, to tell the story of the Titanic. Remember too, the Titanic was a British ship, not an American ship, although there were many American passengers aboard, as well as people from many countries, often poor people, trying to get to America for a new life; and indeed, the actual social division on the ship is depicted in the movie (first, second and third class/steerage). The Titanic was the most modern ship afloat, with the latest technology, including the ship being divided into a system of watertight compartments, that when the doors were closed could seal off water and prevent the ship from sinking in many of the likely scenarios. Notice I said "many of the likely scenarios." The worst thing many could imagine for the ship was that another ship might hit it at the junction of two of its watertight compartments, which would not be enough to sink it. Even the possibility of a head on collision didn't seem to threaten to doom the great ship, as it could stay afloat with its first four compartments flooded. The nightmare that developed, however, was that the iceberg opened the first 5 or 6 compartments to the sea (sources vary on the number, but since the discovery of the wreckage and analysis of metal and such, it "seems" the iceberg caused rivets to pop and metal plates to buckle, rather than the "can opener effect" which had long been suspected by many). With 5 or 6 compartments filling with water, this was something the ship's watertight compartments could not handle, as these compartments only extended partially up the multi-level deck ship. Once the first 5 or 6 compartments flooded, that extra weight pulled the ship down, which caused the water to flow over into the next compartment, which pulled the ship down even more, which caused the water to flow over into the next compartment and so on, until ... well, you know.  

I was in Germany when Robert Ballard and his crew discovered the Titanic in September 1985. I bought American newspapers at German newspaper kiosks to keep up with the discovery. If my memory is right, it was the European edition of "USA Today." 

Main Cast: 

Clifton Webb as Richard Sturges

Barbara Stanwyck as Julia Sturges

Audrey Dalton as Annette Sturges

Harper Carter as Norman Sturges

Robert Wagner as Giff Rogers

Thelma Ritter as Maude Young, see note below cast

Brian Aherne as Captain Edward Smith

Richard Basehart as George Healey

Allyn Joslyn as Mr. Meeker 

James Todd as Sandy Comstock 

Frances Bergen as Madeleine Astor

William Johnstone as John Jacob Astor IV

Edmund Purdom as Second Officer Lightoller

 

(Note: Thelma Ritter played the real life "Maggie Brown," a wealthy woman aboard the Titanic, who became popularized as "the Unsinkable Molly Brown," but she was renamed in the film as "Maude Young." Over time I've read that the film producers and Brown's family seemed to have some disagreement about Brown's portrayal in the film, and that perhaps to avoid any potential legal action, the name was changed to "Maude Young," although admittedly it seems a bit strange why anyone would contest the use of the real name. The real "Molly Brown" died in the early 1930s, so well before the filming of the movie in 1952 and its release in 1953. A few years after this movie there was a stage play released about "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," followed in the mid 1960s by a major motion picture and box office hit starring Debbie Reynolds. The film took in millions, and that was in the money value of those times. Keep in mind, both the stage version and the movie version were simply "based" upon Molly Brown's life, and they were not any attempt at historical reenactment.) 

 

The basic gist of the fictional story used to tell the story of the Titanic is about the Sturges family, led by estranged husband and wife, Richard and Julia. Julia takes older teenager Annette and ten year old Norman and she prepares to head to the United States, where she intends to make her separation from Richard all legal. Richard heads to the new Titanic where he pays a Basque man for his ticket, with the man planning to take another ship and to meet his family in America. During the voyage, the Sturges couple air their differences, Annette meets, and begins to get close with, a young man named "Giff," and Norman plans to spend time with his father, whom he idolizes, participating in some of the ship's activities, including shuffleboard. (There is also a side story of a moody and often drunken man, George Healey, a man we learn has been dismissed from the priesthood for persistent drunkenness. When the ship is sinking, although Healey has struggled with his life and alcohol in the priesthood, his inherent goodness comes to the fore when some of the boiler crewmen are left in the flooding boiler room. As he prepares to descend the steps to almost certain death, one of the escaping men says, "For God's sake mister, don't go in there," but Healey replies, "For God's sake I am going in there.") The animosity between Richard and Julia takes an especially hard edge when she tells him that Norman is not his son. Richard is shaken by the revelation, and he goes off to a big card game, and he devastates Norman by shunning him. Of course, all of these matters become meaningless as the supposedly "unsinkable" ship grazes an iceberg, which opens the ship below the waterline. While the collision with the iceberg is a "grazing," with most people not even realizing there has been anything happen, Richard feels the big ship shudder a bit and a little later he sees the crew reacting as if there is an emergency (which of course, there is). Richard goes to the captain and insists he tell him the truth, and indeed, the captain says the ship is going to sink. Richard goes to his family and acts as calmly as he can in an effort to comfort them, in spite of the dire predicament he knows to be the true situation. As the lifeboats are readied to be loaded, and distress rockets are fired to signal any nearby ships, rumors circulate that there are not enough lifeboats for all of the passengers and crew, which is true, and Julia now knows that Richard's downplaying of the seriousness of the situation was simply a performance. Women and children are ordered to get into the lifeboats. Julia tells Richard she knows the ship is sinking and that there are not enough lifeboats. The two express their regrets over not making their marriage work and Julia, Annette and Norman go to their assigned lifeboat, but Julia doesn't see that Norman gives up his seat to a woman and he goes to find his father. When Julia learns what has happened, she screams and cries, as she knows her son is likely to die. Norman finally finds his father and tells him "I thought we could make a swim of it together." Giff, Annette's love interest, falls into the icy water while trying to help lower one of the lifeboats. He is pulled into this lifeboat and he is thus saved from the fate of most of the other men on the sinking ship. 

 

Isador and Ida Straus, real life co-owners (with Isador's brother, Nathan) of Macy's Department Store, died that night and Mrs. Straus would not get into a lifeboat without her husband. John Jacob Astor IV, one of the richest of the rich, died that night, but his pregnant wife survived in a lifeboat, and a few months later the baby, a son, was born. Captain Smith was set to retire after this voyage, as he was in his early 60s. Barbara Stanwyck later told of the filming of the sinking, which was done at night and she was in a lifeboat about to be lowered away. She noted that she looked at the people they were leaving behind to die and how it struck her that this had happened in real life and that emotion overtook her and she burst into tears

 

The historical accuracy of the movie has been battered by historians, beginning with the early part of the movie. We hear in the film that the ship is sold out, and that's why Richard Sturges has to buy a ticket from a passenger; but in reality, the Titanic was not sold out; in fact, there were hundreds of tickets available. A truly glaring error in the film is when the iceberg and the Titanic make contact. The film correctly (historically) shows the ship trying to clear the iceberg, which is on its right. Then comes an underwater shot of an ice spur ripping open the Titanic, but on its left! (Some clips, and perhaps even some versions of the entire movie have reversed the scene to show the ship grazing by the iceberg on its right side, as happened historically.) By the way, remember what we've heard many times, that more than three quarters of an iceberg is underwater; so, the idea of a spur tearing the Titanic open below the waterline was not farfetched, but the movie has it on the wrong side of the ship (until, at least, some editions had the scene corrected). The movie depicts the iceberg as absolutely monstrous, dwarfing the Titanic, and this was just the part above the water, but reports from survivors and from ships in the area in daylight indicate the iceberg was not anywhere near the size shown in the movie (ships in the area noted several icebergs in the aftermath of the sinking). The Titanic itself was slightly less than 900 feet long (about 270m). The events that had to happen to bring the Titanic and the iceberg together late on April 14, 1912 were mind boggling. Hundreds of square miles of the North Atlantic with this iceberg and the Titanic meeting at just the right instant to cause a catastrophe. Further there were no binoculars for the crow's nest, perhaps because the original crew member with the key to the storage for the crow's nest had been assigned to a new ship at the last minute in Europe, and he forgot to leave the key. In the movie, I believe some dialogue indicates the binoculars for the crow's nest had been accidentally left behind, with Captain Smith intending to get another pair in the U.S. Another thing was, the sea was basically calm; thus, no waves, even minor waves, lapping up onto the iceberg to help the lookout's to spot it. Remember too, the ship was damaged late on April 14, but sank shortly before 2:30 on the morning of April 15.     

Photo is of the 2003 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD

 

WORD HISTORY:

Mourn-This is NOT the same word as "morn" or "morning," both having to do with the early time of a day, nor is it even related to those forms. "Mourn" means "to grieve, to remember someone or something in a sorrowful way." It is distantly related to a number of words having to do with remembering, for example: commemorate, memorial, memorize, memory and remember, all words of Latin derivation, most of them borrowed by English via Latin-based French. "Mourn" goes back to Indo European "(s)mer," which had the notion, "to remember, to think (about)." This gave Old Germanic "muranan," meaning, "to remember in a sorrowful way, to think of." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "murnan" meaning, "to remember in a sorrowful way," but also seemingly a secondary meaning of "to worry about." This then became "mornen," before the modern version. The noun form in Old English was "murnung," meaning "the act of expressing or showing grief or sorrow." The 1300s saw the idea of particular clothing worn during a period of grief (mourning), as "mourning clothes or habit," and this seems to have simply been shortened to "mourning" by the 1600s (mid?) for the clothing or home adornments expressing grief (typically of dark colors, usually black). Its seems only English "mourn" and "mourning" have survived into modern times among the Germanic languages (unless there are dialectal forms), but Old French borrowed a form from Germanic Frankish, although it too seemingly has died out of usage.