Crab Louie

"Crab Louie" is a salad that "seems" to be from the early 20th Century, perhaps in San Francisco, or at least first really established there, even if it came there from elsewhere. The dressing is similar to "Thousand Island Dressing,"* although not exactly the same, and this dressing has a little kick, but the hot sauce or cayenne pepper won't fry your tongue, it just adds some "zip." of course, if you like really spicy hot food, go for it, and add more hot sauce or cayenne pepper. You can certainly use Thousand Island and add a little hot sauce or cayenne pepper to it, but this actual dressing is not hard to make. 

As I've gotten older, I'm more sensitive to sour flavors, so I tend to add sweeteners to some foods now, and I do that for the dressing in this dish. I listed honey as "optional" for the dressing, but I made a big spread in the amount from 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon, but some folks may not prefer any honey. 

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

12 to 16 ounces lump crab meat or imitation chunk crab meat

4 to 8 romaine lettuce leaves (I prefer a couple of leaves, myself)

4 roma tomatoes, cut into quarter wedges

8 asparagus spears

16 olives, whole or halved

8 green onions (scallions)

4 hard boiled eggs, cut into wedges

 

For the dressing:

 

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup chili sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I use ancho chili powder)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce or ground cayenne pepper (or other ground red pepper)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 heaping tablespoon sweet pickles (or gherkins or sweet relish), finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground black or white pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt  

(optional) 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon honey

 

In a bowl, mix all of the dressing ingredients together. Cook the asparagus in salted water for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, drain, let cool. In a glass bowl or glass cup (I actually use one of my glass measuring cups), add all of the ingredients, except the honey, if using. Mix everything together well, then give it a little taste to see if you want to add any honey; if yes, I suggest starting with just one teaspoon, mixing it in, then tasting the dressing again to see if it needs more honey. Use the same procedure until you get to the taste level you prefer. You can arrange the component salad parts into separate segments (as I have for the photos below), or you can mix them in together. Each serving gets: 3 to 4 ounces of crab/imitation crab, 1 or 2 romaine lettuce leaves, 1 quartered Roma tomato (or chopped, if you'd prefer), 2 asparagus spears (can be cut into pieces; I left them whole for the photos below), 4 olives (can be halved, if you'd like), 2 green onion, cleaned and trimmed (can also be cut into pieces, if you'd prefer), 1 quartered hard-boiled egg; some dressing on the crab or in a separate ramekin. 

 

* Thousand Island Dressing is easy to make at home, here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/homemade-thousand-island-dressing.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Ape-The origin of this word is unknown, and there is naturally a good possibility that the word is from some language where monkeys and apes were common animals. What is known is, Old Germanic "apo" was used as a general word for non-human primates of any size. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "apa," with the same meaning, and it wasn't until circa 1600 that the meaning came to be used for the larger primates, as by that time English had borrowed the word "monkey," which was then used for smaller primates. The spelling "ape" had taken place a few hundred years before that time. The other Germanic languages have forms all meaning "ape, monkey": German "Affe." ^ Low German Saxon, Dutch and West Frisian  "aap," Danish "abe," Icelandic "api," Swedish "apa," Norwegian "ape" (pronounced "ah-pa").

 

^ The high dialects of German often experienced a sound shift of "p" to "f," or sometimes to "pf;" thus English has "pipe," but standard German has "Pfeife" (pronounced like "pfeye-fah"), English "ship," but German "Schiff," English "sleep" (noun), but German "Schlaf." 

Indian/Pakistani Braised Lamb in Gravy: Lamb Korma

The word "korma" means "braise" in Indian/Pakistani cooking. "Korma" recipes in northern India and in Pakistan generally vary from those in southern India, where coconut milk, and often ground cashews or almonds, are used, but the specific recipes, regardless of region, have numerous variations and preparation methods. Regular readers might recall that I love sauces and gravies, and I chose to do a "korma" with "gravy," but not every "korma" has gravy. What the people of the Indian Subcontinent call "gravy," Americans would call a "sauce," so don't let the terminology fool you into thinking this dish has some deep dark lamb gravy. Indians, both northern and southern, and Pakistanis tend to use meat cut into pieces still on the bones and the meat is likely to be "mutton;" that is, meat from a sheep that is in excess of one year in age, not the younger lamb that is now overwhelmingly common in the U.S (lamb is meat from a sheep a year or less in age). I understand the idea of cooking the meat on the bones, but I'm not much into then having to pick the meat off the bones when eating; so, I use lamb chunks and some separate lamb bones that can be cooked with the meat, but then easily taken out and discarded. There is a good deal of onion in this dish, but it is supposed to be that way, and part of the onion is sliced and part is finely chopped (in India and Pakistan, some smash or blend the onion into a paste, often with some other ingredients included). 

 

As I often mention about recipes from the Indian Subcontinent, the list of ingredient for this dish may seem intimidating, but if you cook such recipes anywhere near regularly, you will have most of the spices and other ingredients on hand. If you want to learn to cook recipes from the Indian Subcontinent, then the reality is, you are going to need to have these various spices and herbs anyway. Likely two of the less common spices to Americans are green and black cardamom. In more recent times, the small green cardamom pods have become more familiar to some Americans, but the far larger black cardamom pods are likely unknown to the overwhelming percentage of Americans. Sometimes cardamom is ground, but often it is used by cracking, crushing or slitting the pods to allow the cardamom to easily flavor the dish.  

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

1 to 1 1/4 pound boneless lamb meat, cut into bite size pieces (or use mutton)

couple lamb bones

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 heaping tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground red pepper (like cayenne)

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons butter & 1 tablespoon oil (or 3 tablespoons clarified butter, aka ghee)

1 onion, halved and then sliced

2 inch piece cinnamon stick

4 whole cloves

2 black cardamon, cracked 

5 green cardamon, cracked or crushed somewhat

6 peppercorns, cracked

1 or 2 dried red chilies, whole 

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated 

1 cup finely chopped onion (white or red)

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

1 cup heated water (a little more if needed)

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

In a bowl or cup (I use my measuring cup), mix together the yogurt, salt, ground coriander, ground red pepper and turmeric. In a larger non reactive bowl, add the lamb pieces and then the yogurt mixture. Mix to coat the lamb pieces well, cover with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours (or even overnight). In a skillet, add the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and saute until the onion starts to soften and shows some brown color (do not blacken the onions), then add the cinnamon stick, whole cloves, black cardamon, green cardamon, peppercorns and dried red chili. Saute for 90 seconds, then add the garlic, ginger and finely chopped onion, then add 1 cup heated water, stir well and bring to a simmer; adjust the heat so that the mixture just barely simmers; cover the skillet with a lid or foil. Let the meat slowly braise, stirring it occasionally. If you feel the dish needs a little more water, add a quarter cup of hot water, and mix it in well. When the meat is tender, you can add the cilantro and the mace and stir them into the lamb, or top the finished dish with the cilantro. I've generally found the lamb needs to cook for about 75 minutes, but I've also let it cook for 90 minutes on occasion. Serve with rice ...    

 

 

Lamb Korma with some turmeric and saffron rice ...

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Myrtle-This word "perhaps" is related to "myrrh," a word borrowed from Latin, which had it from Greek which had it from Semitic, where it meant "bitterness." The ultimate origins of "myrtle" are uncertain, although it "could" be from the same source as "myrrh."^ Transliterated Persian "murt/murd," meaning "myrtle," a type of evergreen tree or bush with fragrant flowers,"^^ and some other Indo European languages in that general greater Middle East area/Caucasus region have similar words, but where all of these words are from is uncertain, but naturally Semitic is a definite possibility, as it was/is right there by some Indo European languages/dialects. Whatever the origin, Ancient Greek had transliterated "myrtos" (myrtle, the tree/bush, but also seemingly for a twig or branch of the tree) and Latin borrowed the word as "myrtus" (myrtle, the tree), and this gave Latin-based Old French "myrte," and English seems to have borrowed the word as "myrt," but then was further influenced in pronunciation and, thus, spelling by French "myrtille," from Latin "myrtillus," the diminutive of Latin "myrtus" (see above), but which meant "blueberry" and "bilberry" (similar berries in appearance, but not taste), but this moved the borrowing in English to be "myrtle." (Exactly why the word for blueberry and bilberry had such an influence on a word for a tree or bush is a bit of a mystery to me, unless they were thought to be related?)  

 

^ While "myrtle" and "myrrh" are similar words, "myrtle" is a tree/bush/shrub, and "myrrh" is a resin from some plants, but not from myrtle, although people a couple of thousand years ago may not have seen that difference in the same way (just my opinion). 

 

^^ Persian is an Indo European language from the Indo-Iranian branch; thus, it is related to English, which is from the Germanic branch.     

Chicken Salad

You can use store or restaurant bought rotisserie or grilled chicken, or cook some chicken yourself in the oven, on the grill, under the broiler, or boiled.

The cayenne pepper won't scorch your mouth, and I have really hot cayenne, but the chicken salad was not hot at all.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings):

 

1 pound boneless cooked chicken, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons very finely chopped onion (red or white)

2 tablespoons finely chopped sweet pickle (or dill pickle, if you prefer)

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 good pinch cayenne pepper

1/4 cup pecans, toasted (buy toasted or toast them yourself)

whole wheat or white bread

 

 In a cup or a bowl, add the mayonnaise, yogurt, buttermilk, garlic powder and honey; mix together very well (whisk or I sometimes use a stick blender), set it aside briefly. In a bowl, add the chicken, finely chopped onion, finely chopped sweet pickle (or dill pickle, if using), celery salt, ground black pepper and pinch of cayenne pepper. Mix these ingredients into the chicken, it doesn't have to be perfect, as next, add the mayo/yogurt dressing, and mix further to completely coat all of the chicken. Add the pecans and just fold them through the salad. Serve on whole wheat or white bread. 

 

 Chicken salad on whole wheat bread with a few pecan pieces to top it off ...

Full chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat ...

,

WORD HISTORY:

Copious-This word is related to "opulent" and to "copy," words borrowed from French, but with heavy reinforcement by Latin, to "opus" and to "optimum," words borrowed from Latin. "Copious" is really a prefixed word and a suffixed word, with the prefix going back to Indo European "kom" which meant, "beside, near, together," and this gave Latin both "con" and "com," with the idea of "together, with," and the "com-" and "con-" forms sometimes were reduced to "co-." The main part of "copious" goes back to Indo European "op," which had the notion of "perform work, to make or produce;" thus also, "to have the force; that is, the ability to do." This gave Latin "ops," which meant "resources;" thus also, "wealth." With the prefix this produced the Latin noun "copia," meaning "plentiful supply, riches, resources," and this produced the adjective "copiosus,"^ which meant "plentiful, abundant." English borrowed the word in the mid 1300s from Latin.

 

^ The suffix "osus" was used in Latin to convey the notion of the word "having much, being full of, well supplied with, being inclined toward."   

Scotch Broth

There are lots of variations to recipes for Scotch Broth, although often those variations are in the list of vegetables used, and in Scotland, mutton is more often used rather than lamb (lamb is meat from a sheep one year of age or less, while mutton is the meat from sheep from about one year to three years of age), and in the U.S., lamb or beef is likely used by many people. It's my understanding, Scots often use vegetables they have on hand, or to which they have easy access, rather than following some specific list all the time. When I was a kid, Scotch broth was fairly common in cans (I don't recall any family member making it from scratch). It was thick, and it is often more of a stew, but you can certainly thin it out to make it as a soup. You don't want to add the vegetables all at the same time, as it takes varying times for them to cook.  

Rutabaga, also known as Swedes to some, are also commonly used in this dish, but they are generally more common in the fall, but that doesn't mean you won't find them at other times of year, and they are highly durable, which has made them a staple in some cultures. 

Ingredients (6 to 8 servings): 

 

1 1/4 pound lamb, cut into small pieces (about 1/2 inch pieces)

couple lamb bones

2 1/2 tablespoons lard (or butter and oil mixed)

1 cup chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup pearl barley

1/2 cup green split peas

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 tablespoons thyme

1 cup chopped carrot (peeled)

1/2 cup chopped parsnip (peeled)

1/3 cup chopped turnip

1 cup chopped leek, rinsed well

2/3 cup cabbage, shredded

6 cups chicken broth (more if later needed, or you can just add water)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

 

To a pot, add the lard (or butter/oil) over medium heat, then add the onion and stir it around occasionally until it softens. Add the minced garlic and stir for another minute, then add the lamb, the lamb bones, pearl barley, green split peas, bay leaves, thyme, salt and chicken broth; bring to a simmer and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle steady simmer, then use a lid or cover with foil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 2 1/4 hours. Now add the carrot, parsnip and turnip, stir well and replace lid or foil, simmer for another 1 1/4 hours, again stirring occasionally. Now add the leek, cabbage and ground black pepper, stir well and simmer a further 40 to 45 minutes (if the soup is too thick, you can add some more chicken broth or just water). You can always add some more salt or black pepper to suit your own taste. Top each serving with some chopped parsley, or add the parsley directly to the soup, if you prefer. 

 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Miss-This is the verb and noun form, but NOT the shortened form of "mistress" used as a title for an unmarried woman. "Miss" is distantly related to "migrate," a Latin-derived word likely borrowed from that language, but with French reinforcement, and to "permeate," another Latin word borrowed from that language, and it is more closely related to the prefix "mis-," which is from the Germanic roots of English (although some specific words with the prefix in English are borrowings from French, which had the prefix from Germanic Frankish; thus, the same Old Germanic source). "Miss" goes back to the Indo European root "mey/mei," with the notion of "change, change location." This gave Old Germanic "miss(i)jan(an)," which meant "to go wrong;" thus also, "to fail at." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb "missan" meaning, "to fail to hit that which was intended, not to take notice of something," and this then became "missen," before the "en" was dropped for the modern form. The Germanic form also gave Old English the noun "miss" meaning, "loss, lack, absence," where it has remained for all of these centuries. The mid 1500s saw the verb influence the noun meaning with, "a failure to hit something intended, failure to succeed at." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "missen," also the prefixed form "vermissen," Low German has "missen" (also "vermissen" from standard German?), West Frisian has "misse," Dutch has "missen," Danish and Norwegian have "miste" and "misse," Icelandic has "missa," Swedish has "missa" and "mista."          

The Bridge: Die Brücke, Antiwar Film

This 1959 West German antiwar film has received many accolades, including the nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, although it did not win that award. The overall story of the film is based upon real events near the end of World War Two. Most of the main cast was made up of young Germans in their teens or early 20s at the time, and it was directed by Austrian Bernhard Wicki, who later directed the German scenes in 1962's "The Longest Day," about the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France in 1944. In the mid 1950s, Wicki had starred in a German made movie about the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, with Wicki portraying Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who almost killed Hitler on July 20, 1944. 

 

Hitler's defeat saw Germany divided into occupation zones, with each of the four major Allied powers controlling one of the zones (Berlin was also divided into 4 such zones, although the city was inside the Soviet zone of East Germany, and Vienna was likewise divided, but with the city center under shared administration by the four Allied nations). The British, American and French zones eventually came to comprise the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik), more commonly known as "West Germany," and the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik), more commonly known as "East Germany." Austria was separated into an independent country again. It's important to remember, the film I'm covering here was made before the wall was erected by the communist regime in East Germany, supported by the Soviet Union. By the time "The Bridge" was filmed in the late 1950s, the Western Allies had permitted the establishment of a West German military force. The Germans (and Austrians) had to earn their way back into the world community, as the threat of a Nazi revival was always on the minds of many non-German Europeans and Americans, a situation now reversed as Donald Trump's actions have exhibited more than a little resemblance to the Nazi Führer of old, complete with the use of the Boy Scouts as a stand in for a Hitler Youth rally and crowds of supporters, quite a number "claiming" to be Christians, chanting "lock her up" and "build the wall" as substitutes for "Sieg Heil," to give Trump's weak ego a boost it so constantly and so desperately needs. There was even a failed "putsch," lacking only a beer hall to add the proper touch. Americans once OVERWHELMINGLY knew better, and I believe, I must believe, somewhere deep inside, Americans still know better than to latch onto a despicable creature like Trump.

 

"The Bridge" is introduced on this DVD edition by NBC's Chet Huntley, who was teamed in those days with David Brinkley for what is now called "NBC Nightly News," but in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, it was known as the highly respected "Huntley-Brinkley Report."        

 

Partial Cast:     

 

Folker Bohnet as Hans Scholten

Fritz Wepper as Albert Mutz

Michael Hinz as Walter Forst

Frank Glaubrecht as Jürgen Borchert

Karl Michael Balzer as Karl Horber

Volker Lechtenbrink as Klaus Hager

Günther  Hoffmann as Sigi Bernhard

Cordula Trantow as Franziska 

Wolfgang Stumpf as the teacher

Edith Schultze-Westrum as Sigi's mother (Frau Bernhard)

Ruth Hausmeister as Albert's mother (Frau Mutz)

Eva Vaitl as Jürgen's mother (Frau Borchert)

Hans Elwenspoek as Walter's father (Nazi Party official Forst)

Klaus Hellmold as Karl's father (Herr Horber)  

Günter Pfitzmann as Unteroffizier Heilmann

The film opens rather ominously, as what is apparently an artillery shell explodes in the river by a bridge on the outskirts of a German town. The end of World War Two is approaching and, indeed, that end is only a couple of weeks away (we don't see or hear any aircraft, so that's why I say "apparently an artillery shell"). The explosion causes quite a stir in the town, and the Nazi official of the town is preparing to send his wife away on a train, so that he can then flee with his mistress. During the first part of the film, we meet several teenage boys, the parents, especially mothers of most of these boys, a teacher for the boys, and some other civilians. We learn that American forces are not far away and the boys are excited that they may be called up for military service to help defend their country, a fact that takes place, as their induction notices arrive. We also see the reaction to that fact from the parents of the boys, with one mother, Frau Bernhard, wanting her son Sigi to go stay with his aunt until the war is over, but the boy doesn't want to be seen as avoiding military service by his friends. Another mother gives her son, Jürgen, a pistol that had belonged to the boy's father, who had died in action during the war. While she is a tough woman and she acts proud of her son on the surface, underneath she is worried. The Nazi official sends his wife off, but he doesn't even let their son, Walter, say goodbye to her, which causes serious resentment by the boy, especially because he knows about his father's mistress. Again, keep in mind, this is all taking place in late April 1945, as in Berlin, Soviet forces are just blocks away from Hitler's underground bunker, and Hitler himself is just days away from killing himself and having his body burned. Germany's defeat is assured, lacking only a signature on a surrender document to make it official. Any further deaths only add to the tragedy that has been going on since September 1939 in Europe, Africa, and even longer in Asia. 

 

The boys must report for duty the next day and their teacher goes to the induction barracks and talks with the officer in charge there. The teacher tells him he doesn't want to see the boys injured or killed in such a hopeless cause. The officer can't publicly agree, and he tells the teacher he recently received notice that his son had been killed in action. He also tells the teacher the boys are full of idealism about defending their homeland, an ideal taught by the teacher, who says in reply that the ideal has fallen into the wrong hands and that the boys have been deceived. Inside of himself, the officer knows he needs to do something, so he eventually orders that the boys remain in town and "defend" the bridge on the edge of town, which is scheduled to be blown up by army engineers; that way, the boys should be out of harm's way, and he makes this all clear to the soldier he puts in charge of the boys, Unteroffizier Heilmann. Other troops from this same induction and training center are sent off to the nearby front lines. Some of the boys at the bridge think their job is like the most important of the war effort and they begin to plan a defense of the bridge, a place where they have played "cowboys and Indians" most of their young lives. At first, it's all like the boys are playing at soldiering, which down through time many boys (and some girls too) have done. 

 

With Heilmann in charge of the boys (he is an Unteroffizier; that is, a rank of corporal in some armies, while more equivalent to a type of sergeant in other armies), he keeps the boys busy and he decides to walk into the town proper and get coffee for everyone. He leaves his rifle with the boys and puts Hans in charge, which causes some resentment from Walter. When he gets into the business/residential section, the military police spot him. (All armies have military police, but the Nazis acted totally insane in the waning days of a war that was obviously lost, and military police, special Nazi police and plain old Nazi thugs searched for men they declared to be "deserters," including from the generally beleaguered Volkssturm, which consisted of teenage boys and old men, many of whom were ill-equipped, to put it mildly. These "deserters" were often executed.) The military police stop him and he provides his identification, but he's left his rifle at the bridge, and when he tells them he's in charge of a group of young boys who've only had a half day of training to defend the bridge, the police already know the bridge is to be blown up, so they accuse him of being a deserter, and one of them draws his gun on Heilmann. The situation is bad and Heilmann tries to escape, but he is pursued and gunned down. The boys will now be alone, with no one to temper their own misguided idealism and desires for adulthood, which become their biggest enemies. The boys hear the gunfire, but they aren't sure what could be going on. Sigi is on sentry duty on the bridge, and he resumes his post. They occasionally hear artillery fire that is not very far away. 

 

The boys decide to have some food and since Heilmann has not returned with coffee, some think he has taken off and left them. As they open and eat their rations, an older civilian man comes to them. He tells the boys they should go home, as he has seen the death and destruction of war before, but this only upsets most of the boys, as they feel he is telling them to become deserters, and that they have to defend the bridge because it has strategic value. The old man presses them further though and he tells them not to play at being heroes, but this brings Jürgen to draw his pistol and he threatens the man, who turns and leaves, much to the delight of the boys, whose egos feel grown up after ordering the man away, even though their gloating behavior is still like that of teenage boys. Hans, however, is uneasy, and the man's statement about his own experience made an impression on him, and he comments about who knows what the man has taken part in (mitgemacht). The boys hear trucks and then they see headlights. They drag some lightweight barriers across the road, and the trucks, full of retreating army troops, screech to a halt. The men and their officers are furious with the boys and they remove the barriers and the retreat continues. Some of the boys get their feathers ruffled when the older soldiers or people refer to them as "boys" or "children," because they see themselves as men defending their country. A little later a motorcycle with a sidecar carrying an officer and two men passes the boys, but the motorcycle breaks down and these men wait for more trucks nearing them. The boys see the officer is highly decorated and they are impressed. The officer stops the trucks not far behind them, and the boys see the one truck is full of wounded men. They now see men mauled and mangled by war. The fog is thick, but daylight is breaking. The trucks move on. 

 

Hans again questions why they are there and he thinks they should all go home, as the army is retreating and there seems to be no German military units between them and the Americans. Jürgen says they are soldiers and they've been given an order to hold the bridge, but Hans tells them that holding this little bridge can't decide the outcome of the war. Sigi spouts off about anyone who defends a little of German soil, defends Germany. Jürgen asks each one of the other boys if they will stay or go home. They all decide to stay, although Hans is reluctant. An aircraft is heard, Sigi dives to the ground, while the others watch the plane off in the distance. They kid and tease Sigi about hitting the ground, but then, the plane circles back right toward the bridge. The boys all hit the ground, but not Sigi this time, and he stands and watches the plane come right at them. The plane fires its machine gun and drops a bomb nearby, then it flies off. The boys get up, but when Walter goes to Sigi, he's been hit by the machine gun fire and killed. The boys gather around Sigi, but then more activity is heard; American tanks are coming. The boys scramble to their defensive positions. Nearby, three German army engineers pull up to blow up the bridge, but they hear the American tanks and they take shelter in one of the homes, figuring the tanks will move on, and then they can blow up the bridge.  

 

The tension builds as the boys await the actual appearance of the American tanks, and the tanks finally come into view and begin firing. American infantry arrive in a truck. Walter fires a Panzerfaust at a tank, hits it and it finally bursts into flames. (Note: A Panzerfaust, literally, "armor or tank fist," was a relatively cheap hand-held disposable antitank weapon that fired a single shell-like projectile. The Germans produced them in great quantity during the last couple years of the war and they were highly effective against armor, as they were able to penetrate the armor of tanks and other armored vehicles. Their drawbacks were they had to be fired from close range, they were single shot and when fired, they caused a fiery discharge from the firing tube that was extremely dangerous for anyone behind the person firing the weapon. These were not like American bazookas, which the Germans essentially copied, calling them "Panzerschreck;" that is, "tank fright/tank terror.") The boys are firing to give cover to Walter, who grabs another Panzerfaust and tries to get close to destroy another tank. Meanwhile, the three army engineers await a chance to destroy the bridge in what is Sigi's house, and his terrified mother talks with the soldiers as she worries over Sigi's safety, not knowing that her son is already lying dead not far away. The engineers tell her, the boys should have let the tanks through and then they could have blown up the bridge and avoided the town's destruction, which is now ongoing. The intense American fire has brought a couple of the boys to the breaking point, as they begin crying and they want to get out. They now see this isn't "Cowboys and Indians" anymore. Jürgen, stationed in a tree, kills an American soldier, but he himself is then shot and killed, and his body falls out of the tree right near two of the other boys. 

 

Walter, still with the Panzerfaust, makes his way into a house. It turns out to be the house of the old man the boys had chased away at the bridge. He tells Walter he's endangering the lives of women and children, but Walter grabs him by the throat and then shoves him away. Walter goes into a room and he sees an American tank passing by the window. He goes to the window and prepares to fire the Panzerfaust (they were fired from the shoulder). Just then, the old man from before comes into the room and yells at him not to shoot, but it's too late, and Walter fires the Panzerfaust. The rear discharge scorches the face of the old man, who falls to the floor writing in pain. Walter is now terrified at what's happened, and an American soldier enters the room and pushes Walter up against the wall, saying, "You crazy kid, what are you doing in this friggin' war?" The house is hit by a shell, and Walter is knocked to the floor and part of the wall and ceiling collapse on him, and he dies. The American soldier goes outside and yells to the remaining boys to give up, and he adds, "Go home, or go to kindergarten." This last strikes at the "manly" pride of Karl, and he begins firing at the soldier. The American is shot in the stomach and cries out in agony, falling to the ground. Klaus tells Karl to shoot the soldier to put him out of his misery, but when Klaus pushes at Karl, Karl slumps over, shot through the helmet. Klaus goes crazy with sorrow about Karl's death, and Hans leaves his post with Albert to go to Klaus. Albert is then wounded in the arm. Klaus ends up losing it completely and he runs out of the trench and is shot and killed. The Americans toss out a smoke canister which obscures a truck that pulls up and the Americans get into the truck and drive off.   

 

Hans and Albert come out into the open now, and Hans tends to Albert's wound. With the Americans gone for the moment, the German army engineers show up to demolish the bridge. When they tell Hans and Albert they are going to destroy the bridge, Hans says they can't do it; after all, their friends just died to defend the bridge, and this shows how foolish all of this has been. The one engineer orders them off the bridge and he holds his gun on Hans, but Albert shoots the engineer in the back. The two other engineers begin to drive off, but one fires and hits Hans, and he dies within a minute, with Albert crying over him. Albert walks slowly off the bridge. Across the screen comes the notice that this took place on April 27, 1945. It was such an insignificant event to the German military, that it went unmentioned in any war communique by the army.   

Photo is of the 1998 Beta Film/Kirch Media GmbH DVD with English subtitles ... 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Shin-This word is related to "sheath" and to the verb "shed," both from the Germanic roots of English, to "ski," a Germanic based word borrowed by English from Norwegian, and it is distantly related to "shingle" (roofing piece), a Latin word borrowed by English from Latin. "Shin" goes back to Indo European "skei," which had the notion, "to cut, to cut off, to separate (from)." This gave Old Germanic "skino," which meant "thin or narrow piece," and seemingly then later, "shin," with this only prevailing in West Germanic. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "scinu," meaning "shin," and the compound "scinban" (long a), which became modern "shinbone." "Scinu" then became "schin" and "shyn," before the modern form. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Schiene" (rail, track, splint, tibia), "Schienbein" (shinbone, tibia), Low German has "Scheen" (rail) and the first part of "Scheenpiep" (shinbone, but literally, "shin-pipe"), Dutch "scheen" (shin), Frisian had "skine" (shin), but I can't find a modern form. The North Germanic languages, except Icelandic, have forms seemingly borrowed from Low German, although perhaps with some Frisian influence: Danish "skinneben," Norwegian "skinne" (splint, rail), Swedish "skena" (rail, bar). Frisian, Low German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are all relatively close together and they have long interacted with one another; and, we can put English into that mix too. The verb form of "shin" seems to have developed circa 1830 on ships, meaning "to climb a pole or a rope by using the arms and shins," which then became "shinny" within a few decades. When I was a kid, the word was used quite a bit, perhaps because one of the neighbors had a flagpole in their yard and we kids would all climb it; "shinny up it."    

Gilligan's Island Episode: Seer Gilligan

"Gilligan's Island" was a comedy that originally aired on the CBS television network from 1964 until 1967. The show's first season, 1964-65, was broadcast in black and white, but the show began airing in color with the 1965-66 season. The basic idea of the series was that seven people had been shipwrecked during a severe storm after the tour boat they were on sailed from Hawaii. The boat was beached on a small uncharted island where these seven representatives from various parts of American society had to learn to get along in order to survive. Gilligan was a good and well meaning guy, but no matter how great his intentions, he always managed to bungle things. The show was the creation of Sherwood Schwartz. After CBS cancelled the show and it ceased production, its original episodes began broadcast all over the world, something that has continued pretty much ever since. The show's popularity spawned three full-length movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s featuring all of the original cast, except Tina Louise, who remained embittered about how the show had damaged her career, as movie and television execs felt she was too tied to her "Ginger" character from the show, and this restricted the roles offered to her. Some of the other cast members were embittered too, until they came to realize how beloved they and the show were to so many people around the globe.    

 

This episode first aired in January 1966 and only the regular cast appears in the episode: 

Bob Denver ................. Gilligan
Alan Hale, Jr. .............. (the) Skipper
Jim Backus ................. Thurston Howell III
Natalie Schafer ........... Mrs. Howell, aka "Lovey"
Tina Louise ................ Ginger Grant
Russell Johnson ......... the Professor
Dawn Wells ............... Mary Ann

 

 

Comment: Interestingly, this episode was filmed and broadcast well before the Internet, but there is a connection between the two in a certain way. Some of the Internet tech people, like Mark Zuckerberg, saw the potential of the Internet as a great way to bring people together from all over the world, but he and the others seemingly DIDN'T see, or fully comprehend, the potential for negatives and misuse, something they perhaps wanted to be reserved just for themselves, when they took people's personal information and followed their every move on the Internet. No siree, none of this Mata Hari-like spying for these power hungry and money grubbing Internet lords, whose companies compiled profiles of each user; perhaps, the word "dossier" is even more appropriate. They sold malarkey to the public that they had to have all of this personal information to use targeted ads; thus, they wouldn't have to do the same as television, radio and the print media and compete with those entities head-on to get advertisers to use the Internet to market products and services on the Web. Then there were those who provided false information on the Internet, some doing so by mistake or by accident, but others deliberately floating misinformation for political purposes (think Putin, Trump and others). There are those who have become very wealthy and powerful people because of the Internet, and they know by controlling it, they may control us. If you think this isn't potentially serious, it is VERY serious, and with the likelihood that abortion will become illegal in several parts of the U.S., there is also "talk," right now just talk, about using people's internet records to track them down for abortion violations. If that happens, everything will be on the table, and control of all of us will be a fact, not a theory. (Note: To be clear, Mark Zuckerberg is not the only tech person involved in all of this, but his success has made him one of the best known, if not THE best known tech person, so I use his name here, fairly or unfairly, and I have no sympathy for him anyway.) 

The episode opens with the Skipper looking and calling for Gilligan, who is getting ready to build a birdhouse for a family of birds nesting in a tree. When the Skipper gets to Gilligan, Gilligan says, "The Professor's checking the lobster traps," and then, "I'm building a birdhouse." The astonished Skipper tells Gilligan he answered his questions before he could ask them, but Gilligan says "I can't read your mind," but the Skipper replies, "Well then how can you tell what I'm thinking?" Now even Gilligan looks astonished. The Skipper tests Gilligan again, and Gilligan reads his mind; so, the Skipper takes Gilligan to the others and tells them Gilligan can read minds, but the Professor says it's "a scientific impossibility." The Skipper has Gilligan read his mind again, and then the Professor gives it a try, and sure enough, Gilligan reads his mind too, then Mary Ann, then Ginger, then Mr. Howell. Now the question is, how does Gilligan do it? This is a question that keeps the Howells taking turns pacing back and forth, complete with an alarm clock to signal that it's the other spouse's turn to begin pacing. Mrs. Howell suggests it could be something in the food Gilligan eats; so, Mr. Howell decides he will eat the same things Gilligan eats. Gilligan is skinny, but Mr. Howell finds out that Gilligan eats a lot, so much, that when Mr. Howell eats the same, he unsteadily goes back to his hut and lies down on the bed, only to be told by Mrs. Howell that he has to get up, because it's time for dinner. hahaha 

 

Ginger puts on the psychologist outfit and begins to ask Gilligan about his childhood and his parents. Gilligan at times answers before she can ask the questions, as he all the while munches on some seeds he has with him. He offers Ginger a couple of the seeds, and she suddenly answers a question Gilligan hadn't yet asked. She now realizes these are not regular sunflower seeds. Ginger and Gilligan go to the rest of the group with the news about the seeds and the Professor tests Gilligan's mind reading powers again, as Gilligan quotes back a complicated scientific formula the Professor was thinking about. The Skipper decides to get Gilligan back to their hut so that he can try to find out the location of the bush with the seeds for himself, but Gilligan is too tired and he keeps falling asleep. Mr. Howell later sneaks into the hut and tries to make a deal with the half asleep Gilligan, where the two split things 70 to 30, and to which the greedy Mr. Howell says he won't let Gilligan take anything less than 30%. hahaha  After Mr. Howell, Ginger makes a sexy appeal too, but Gilligan begins snoring. The next morning the castaways are complaining how Gilligan has disappeared without telling them, but he comes back with bags of seeds for all of them, and they mob him. Now the real problems begin, as the little group finds out that reading the minds of others gives no privacy, and that people have thoughts that are not always noble, but they're just thoughts, not always put into action.

 

Mrs. Howell reads her husband's mind and she finds that he wants to steal her seeds. The Skipper and Gilligan are working on one of the huts, when the always clumsy Gilligan causes an accident with the Skipper, who then reads Gilligan's thought that it wouldn't have happened if the Skipper weren't so fat. Ginger and Mary Ann think bad thoughts at one another, although we don't know what it's all about, except that Mary Ann says she is glad Ginger could read her mind, because she's "too much of a lady to say those things." Gilligan goes to talk with the Professor just as Mr. Howell stomps off from an argument with his wife. Gilligan and the Professor talk about all the bad feelings between the castaways now, and the Professor even notes that these have been the most serious disagreements they've had since being shipwrecked. Gilligan says, "I thought we'd all get along really well if we could read each other's minds," and the Professor agrees, adding, "I thought these seeds might even help world peace," but he stops when he reads Gilligan's thought that this is "a stupid idea." The insulted Professor now stomps off too. Later, Gilligan hears and observes the other six castaways arguing among themselves even further, but they begin to run out of seeds. They decide to try to find the bush, but when they set out to find it, Gilligan has already gone there and sets fire to the seed bush. The Skipper, Mr. Howell and the Professor see Gilligan and the fire and they go to him. He tells them he is burning the bush and all of the remaining seeds. Gilligan tells them they probably think it's another dumb thing he has done, but that before the mind reading seeds, they never fought and argued like they have been doing, and that maybe without the seeds, they can all be friends again. While initially irritated by Gilligan's action, they now see the wisdom in what Gilligan has done, and they are no longer angry. With things back to normal, the Skipper tells Gilligan a series of things he has for Gilligan to do before he can go fishing, and the list is extensive. Gilligan asks the Skipper, "Do you know what I think?" The Skipper answers, "No," to which Gilligan replies, "That's good." hahaha   

 

 

 Photo is from the Turner Home Entertainment/Warner Brothers' Complete Second Season DVD Set 

WORD HISTORY:

Nautical-This adjective is related to "navy," a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English from Latin-based French, and and to "navigation," another Latin word either borrowed from that language, with French reinforcement, or the other way around.^ It is also distantly related, through Indo European, to a word no longer in English; that is, Old English "nowend," which meant "sailor," and which was from the Germanic roots of English. "Nautical" goes back to Indo European "neh/nah," which meant "boat," and this gave transliterated Ancient Greek "naus," meaning "ship," which spawned Greek "nautes," meaning "sailor." This produced the Greek adjective "nautikos," meaning "(having to do with) seafaring or naval matters," and Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "nauticus," with the same general meaning. French took the word from Latin as "nautique," and English borrowed the word as "nautical" in the mid 1500s, with the meaning "having to do with ships, seafaring or sailors." The "-al" ending was taken from French or Latin (see note below), and its origin is uncertain, although it "may" have been taken by Latin from Etruscan, a mystery language, "possibly" related to some languages of the Aegean Sea area, including "Minoan." In ancient times, Etruscan was spoken in a fairly large part of what is now Italy, but it eventually died out when Latin came to the area, although some of its words were borrowed into Latin.

^ As I've noted here on occasion, French is a Latin-based language with some Germanic influences. Back hundreds of years ago when English was more commonly borrowing Latin-derived words, many scholars knew Latin, but they also often knew French; thus, they were familiar with many of the words being borrowed, but it's sometimes difficult to tell which language a particular word was borrowed from, and "navigation" is one of those words, although both languages undoubtedly played some role in the word coming into English.  

Law & Order Episode: Marathon

This long running television series was set and filmed in the Manhattan section of New York City. The first half of each episode typically was devoted to the police effort to make an arrest or arrests for the murder that had been committed. The second half of the episodes centered around the trial and legal case against the defendant or defendants, but there were variations at times.  

 

This episode was first broadcast in November 1999.

Comment: This series was absolutely phenomenal, in my opinion. The scripts often attempted to show and explain to Americans their own system of justice, which is often not easy to understand. When we lose someone close to us to criminal behavior, we are emotional about it; by that, I mean we're not only sad, WE'RE MAD AS HELL! The law, over time, has tried to remove emotion from decisions, which is not always possible (if ever). If we lose someone and the perpetrator "seems" obvious, we want them tried and punished, pure and simple, but the law requires that things be done "by the book;" and that means, that the perpetrator is eligible for all the rights afforded to all of us. (I'm not saying the system always works this way, but usually that is the intention.) That means that law enforcement is supposed to use and obey how evidence is gathered in a case. If we are on the victim's side of a case, we and our emotions want the perpetrator convicted, and we don't want them getting off for technicalities. But the rights of those perpetrators are also the same rights that can potentially protect US, if we are wrongly accused of some crime. It is far more complicated than many people realize. When I was teenager, one night there were a few of us walking along the street when the police stopped us. They were looking for a bunch of teenagers for some property damage, and one of the teens was described as having blond hair and wearing a red or maroon paisley shirt. I had blond hair and I was wearing a maroon paisley shirt (Hey, it was popular back then! haha) I'm not sure, but I think they took our names, but they didn't arrest us, mainly because one of the neighbors saw the police with us, and she spoke up and told them she knew my mother. Well, somewhat later, the police came around and told us they had found the guys they were looking for, and that indeed, one had blond hair and was wearing a maroon paisley shirt, just slightly different from the one I was wearing (I told you they were popular!). It taught me how things can happen by sheer coincidence, and I and the others were lucky this didn't take a different turn. All because I had good taste in shirts. hahaha When the police told us about the guys, we knew them, and the guy who had the blond hair and maroon paisley shirt that night, died just a few years ago. 

 

 

Episode Cast:

 

Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe

Jesse L. Martin as Detective Ed Green

Sam Waterston as Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy

Angie Harmon as Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael 

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren

Steven Hill as District Attorney Adam Schiff

Larry Clarke as Detective LaMotte

Guillermo Diaz as Bobby Sabo

Gloria Irizarry as Hilda (Bobby's grandmother) 

Russell Hornsby as Danny Ruiz

Loren Velez as Ms. Torres (Bobby Sabo's attorney)

Michael Irby as Diego Garza

Maximiliano Hernandez as Victor Sabo

Richard Barboza as Flaco Ochoa

Michael Ryan Segal as Roger (pizza shop worker/gun seller to Bobby Sabo)

David Rosenbaum as Judge Berman (the judge in the seized gun case)

E. Katherine Kerr as Judge Holtz (judge in Sabo's case)

 

The episode opens with a female police officer trying to calm flaring tempers over a parking space. Shots rings out nearby and the officer draws her gun and runs toward where the shots came from. She finds a woman lying on the street, the apparent victim of the gunfire. She radios in to report what's happened and to get medical aid for the woman. Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green arrive a little later, but the woman is dead. They find the woman has a wallet with a couple hundred dollars and a purse that is ripped, as seemingly the shooter tried to take her purse. (Just for the record, the murdered woman's name is Eva Harrison.) The officer who first responded tells them there are witnesses and that the shooter is "a Hispanic kid on a silver mountain bike." The fact that this is a murder and attempted robbery in broad daylight turns up the heat on the police to get the murderer. 

 

One young witness was fascinated by the mountain bike and he tells the detectives the make of the bike and that the bike costs $800 (this episode is from 1999 which makes the $800 equivalent to more than $1300 in 2022). A female witness can't really describe the man on the bike, and a German couple visiting the United States also can't agree upon a description of the shooter. The silver mountain bike is the one thing the witnesses agree upon. The detectives talk with a young girl at a playground not far from the crime scene about the mountain bike, and she makes a deal: $20 and she'll give them information about the bike, and Lennie makes the deal, which also includes the name, Danny Ruiz, and the residence building of the guy she has seen with the mountain bike. The two detectives go to the apartment building to find Ruiz, where the management only has the tenants by last name. An older man security guard accompanies them and when Lenny says they've already checked on five tenants with the last name Ruiz, the guard says, "We can't keep track of 'em, they multiply like roaches," a remark which irritates Detective Green. They finally locate Danny Ruiz's apartment, and he turns out to be a black Latino, but they are looking for a white Latino, and he denies having a silver mountain bike, but Green finds the bike in another room. Ruiz says he found it behind the building, and Green says the killer may have ditched it, and Briscoe makes a remark. "And then blend in with the rest of the roaches." Green is again bothered by such language.

 

The bike is covered with finger prints of one Bobby Sabo, who has been arrested before for purse snatching, so the detectives go off to arrest Sabo at his grandmother's apartment, but Sabo runs up the stairs to the roof and gets away, as the police had not covered the roof as a possible escape route for the suspect. Briscoe is worn out from running up the stairs to the roof. A little later, the detectives find out that Sabo's cousin, Victor, has taken Bobby to the bus station and they go there. Briscoe sees Bobby go into the restroom and he follows with his gun drawn and Bobby is arrested, and no gun is found, but not before Bobby shakes his genitals at Briscoe. Bobby makes a remark how he ran past Briscoe "like he was my grandma." The problem gets worse, as the one female witness can't identify Bobby in a lineup, and the German couple has returned to Germany. Bobby Sabo is freed. The detectives lean on Bobby's cousin, Victor, and he tells them Bobby had been staying with a guy out on parole named Diego. The police go to Diego's apartment, but they find no gun. They decide to go back to Victor, who had given Bobby the ride to the bus station in his girlfriend's car. Inside the car they find a 25 caliber pistol, which was the same type gun used to kill the woman during the attempted purse snatching. Bobby's fingerprints are on the gun and the detectives and other police officers go to arrest Bobby at a basketball court. As Briscoe handcuffs Bobby, Green and other police move the other guys at the basketball court out of the way. With Sabo in handcuffs, Briscoe tells Green, "Our boy here just confessed." 

 

At the precinct, Bobby, with his attorney present, faces questions from Briscoe and Green, but he denies the gun is his, and when Briscoe says it doesn't matter, because Bobby confessed on the basketball court, Bobby denies that too, and he claims that the police are trying to frame him. Bobby asks Lieutenant Van Buren, "Are you just going to stand there and let this cracker frame me?" (Note: In American English, especially regionally in the state of Georgia and parts of nearby Florida, calling a person a "cracker" has usually meant "a Southern white person (often poor)," but in some regions, it has also been used for "a white policeman." While the word spread outside of Georgia and the South, my guess is, due to its limited usage, many Americans likely don't really understand the terminology in this context. "Cracker" has had a number of varied meanings over time; of course, with by far the most common in the U.S. being, "a crispy type of biscuit or wafer.") Back to the story: It becomes more obvious that this kid's attitude and his luck in getting off the hook is messing with Briscoe's mind. Privately, Van Buren asks Green if he heard the confession, and he admits he did not hear it. Briscoe hands his written report to Green to check over before filing it in the case, and Green simply asks Lennie how he got the confession so fast. This prompts a sensitive Briscoe to say that after all of his years on the police force, he has a right not to be second-guessed. Van Buren tells the detectives to see what the ballistics show about the retrieved gun. The ballistics show the gun was not the gun used to kill the woman. Briscoe sighs, as they just can't nail Bobby.   

 

The Borough Detective Commander has Van Buren, Briscoe and Green in his office and raises hell with them because the case is still open. When the subject of the confession comes up, Van Buren tells the commander that only Lennie Briscoe heard it and there is no corroboration, although she says she believes Briscoe. Afterwards, Briscoe and Green have some words with each other, as Lennie feels Green questioned whether there was a confession. Lennie angrily walks away. Later, as Green prepares to leave for the day, Briscoe mentions that Bobby's gun was found in a "Pizza Land" bag, and that there are twelve such places in Manhattan, the indication being that maybe they can find the right pizza shop and find someone who might know Bobby and who might know something about how Bobby ended up with a different gun than the one he used to shoot the woman on the street (Note: To hopefully make this a little clearer: how did Bobby get the gun that he then put into the pizza bag and left in the car, which was then found by the police, and what happened to the gun he used to murder the woman?). Green decides to stay at work and the scene shifts to one of the pizza shops where one of the employees identifies Bobby from his mugshot. He then points out another employee, Roger, who recently had some "business dealing" with Sabo in the shop restroom. When Roger is questioned, the detectives find out that he sold Bobby the gun the police found, and that Bobby had dealt his own (original) gun "to a Dominican dude" (that's how Bobby got the money to buy the other gun). Roger tells them he doesn't know the guy's name, but he does tell them where the guy hangs out. The detectives go there and observe the guys until Lennie says, "There's our guy ... he's carrying heavy on the right side." Green is reluctant, but Briscoe gets out of the car and goes to the guy, and Green follows. The guy, named Flaco, asks what it's all about, and Briscoe says it's about the gun he's carrying in his pocket. Flaco asks, "What, you got, x-ray eyes or something?" Briscoe answers, "Yeah, I've got x-ray eyes," and Green checks Flaco's pocket and pulls out a 25 caliber gun. Lennie, always ready with a smart ass remark, says, "Too bad Flaco, you had to run into Superman today." Flaco is arrested and taken in, and it's found he also has a warrant for a misdemeanor, carrying a 30 day sentence. The gun is tested and this gun is found to be the weapon that killed the woman on the street. The detectives tell Flaco they don't think he's the killer, but Flaco won't immediately tell them from whom he got the gun. After some back and forth, Flaco gives them Bobby's name. The detectives go to arrest Bobby again, and predictably, Bobby gives them attitude and tells them "You're just making my lawsuit fatter." Briscoe replies, "Keep talking smart ass, we've got your gun." 

 

The scene shifts to the District Attorney's office, where Jack McCoy tells DA Adam Schiff they finally have a more solid case to prosecute and that Sabo has been indicted. When Adam looks at the evidence and Flaco's arrest record, he's not as convinced of how solid the ground is. McCoy assures him they have made a deal with Flaco to testify against Bobby Sabo, but then in comes Abbie Carmichael with news that Flaco is moving to suppress the gun, based upon the Fourth Amendment (about unreasonable searches and seizures). So much for the deal. A judge agrees that Briscoe's "hunch" that Flaco was carrying a gun was not sufficient reason to search him. The detectives follow up with Flaco in jail, where he is serving the 30 day sentence for the misdemeanor charge, but he refuses to testify against Bobby Sabo, leading an angry Briscoe to grab Flaco and pin him to the wall. Green intervenes to calm the situation, which later leads Lennie to tell Green to never lay a hand on him again. McCoy and Carmichael now only have the confession Lennie says he heard, and McCoy is at least somewhat unsure if Lennie is telling the truth. 

 

The scene shifts to the courtroom, where Briscoe tells the court what happened when Sabo made his confession, which was in reply to Briscoe saying to him then, "You little bastard, I'm arresting you for the murder of Eva Harrison," to which he testifies that Sabo replied, "I gave that white bitch what she deserved." Sabo's attorney questions Lennie about why no one else heard this statement from Sabo and she then tells how a judge ruled about illegally seized evidence and that her client had eluded the police earlier, seeming to make Briscoe angry, as pressure about the case increased on the detective. She makes the point about the gun being illegally seized showed how far Briscoe would go to get her client, but Briscoe responds that his work file is clean, and that the case is not about him, but about Bobby Sabo. Now Sabo takes the stand and proceeds to tell the court he feels Briscoe has a grudge against him, and he denies ever having said what Briscoe testified he said about the murdered woman, Eva Harrison. Sabo's cocky attitude continues when McCoy questions him, but he affirms his denial about the confession. The judge tells them that Briscoe obviously has bad feelings toward Sabo, and this makes her question Briscoe's motives on the confession statement, but she gives the prosecution 24 hours to deliver more evidence, or she will dismiss the charge against Bobby Sabo.                                

 

Back at the precinct, Briscoe and Green get into another argument, with Green saying that Lennie's screw ups had hurt the case, and Briscoe coming back about some of Green's actions having come into question in his time as his partner. Green throws up Lennie's earlier statement in the case about "blending in with the other roaches," and Briscoe denies having meant it to be derogatory. Lieutenant Van Buren stops the argument and takes Briscoe into her office where he indicates he feels they think he's getting too old, but Van Buren tells him she has no such thoughts. Briscoe calms down and goes back out to Green and politely asks for the court transcript of the testimony. During testimony, Sabo stated that he had a pair of brand new shoes. Briscoe now wonders where these shoes are, so he and Green head back to Diego Garza's apartment, where Bobby had been staying. They find the shoes and forensics finds blood stains matching the dead woman's DNA, as well as Sabo's thumb print on the shoes. Sabo and his attorney are confronted with the evidence and McCoy says, "There are no suppression issues this time, your client's run out of miracles." Sabo consults with his attorney and she offers information Sabo has on a rapist running loose, this information in exchange for a 6 to 12 year sentence in the murder case. If the deal is agreed to by Adam Schiff, Sabo will have to admit to the murder in court, and he almost gleefully agrees. McCoy says there is one more thing, he tells Sabo that he went one-on-one with Detective Briscoe and beat him. He wants to know what Sabo did say when Briscoe arrested him that one day. Sabo says, he told him, "I gave that bitch what she deserved." The deal is presented to Adam Schiff who must agree to it, and Carmichael objects to it, but Schiff wants the rapist apprehended, so he okays the deal. Van Buren gets word of the deal and calls Briscoe and Green into her office to tell them, and that the rapist has been arrested. She also tells them that Sabo admitted he made the confession to Lennie earlier in the case.    

 

 

Photo is of the 2012 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment "Law & Order, Tenth Season" DVD box set

 

WORD HISTORY:

Marathon-This word and its modern meaning is from the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece in 1896, where a long distance race was part of the games; however, the distance of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195km) didn't become the set distance until the 1920s. The race name comes from the Greek town of that name near Athens, where in 490 B.C.E. the Greeks defeated invading Persians. The story is, Greek messenger Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to bring news of the victory. The town's name means "fennel," or "field of fennel," but the word's actual origin is unknown, although seemingly from a non Indo European source in the Mediterranean area. The word has broadened in meaning beyond the Olympics to "any long race," with figurative uses for any "long lasting event," and the ending of the word is often tacked onto other words to show they are meant to last for long periods. Example: "telethon."  

Kerala Prawn (Shrimp) Curry: Chemmeen Kari

Kerala is a state along the seacoast in southwestern India, and seafood dishes are common there. Most recipes use coconut milk in this dish, which of course lightens the color, but I've seen a couple of recipes that omit the coconut milk, and the nice red color of the dish draws me to it. I know the list of ingredients looks intimidating, but it really shouldn't scare you at all, and if you cook Indian food at home often, and you already have a lot of spices, you should be pretty well set to make this dish, with the possible exceptions of curry leaves, which are common in southern Indian cooking, and black mustard seeds. Curry leaves can be found in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores and perhaps in "some" spice shops. They are often frozen, but I've actually found fresh curry leaves here in Cleveland at an Indian grocery store. Curry leaves have a combination of a citrusy and basil like taste. You can substitute basil leaves along with some grated lime peel. Black mustard seeds are available at spice shops, Indian/Pakistani grocers and at some supermarkets.

 

I've made this dish a couple of times before, but when I made it for this article, I decided to substitute tomato juice for the water I had used before, and I now prefer to use tomato juice.

Serve with basmati rice ...

 

Ingredients:

 

1 pound raw medium shrimp, shelled and cleaned

4 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 large onion (softball size), quartered and then sliced

2 teaspoons grated ginger

4 medium cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 or 2 red chilies, cut into 4 or 5 pieces each

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground red pepper (like cayenne, or for milder: 1/2 sweet paprika, 1/2 cayenne)

1 heaping teaspoon ground black pepper

12 to 15 curry leaves (or substitute 1 tablespoon grated lime peel and like 6 or 8 torn basil leaves)

1/3 cup tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cardamom pods, crushed or slit 

2 heaping tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, aka coriander 

Heat oil over medium heat (I list 4 tablespoons of oil, but I suggest using 3 tablespoons, then adding the remaining tablespoon, if necessary), add the black mustard seeds and cook for a minute or until the seeds begin to "pop." Add the onions and saute until they begin to soften, then add the ginger, garlic and fennel seed; saute another minute, then add the chilies and cook for 90 seconds, then add the tomato and cook for 3 minutes. Add the salt, turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground red pepper (or the half and half mixture), ground black pepper, curry leaves (or grated lime/basil leaves substitute), tomato juice, ground cinnamon, cardamom pods (crushed or slit) and cook for another 6 minutes, before adding the shrimp and cook a further 6 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of the chopped cilantro, stir and cook about 60 to 90 seconds. Garnish with the other tablespoon of chopped cilantro.

 

Kerala Prawn Curry, basmati rice and paratha, a type of layered and flaky Indian flatbread ...

WORD HISTORY:

Clue-This word is related to "clay," "clod," "cleave" (with the meaning "to cling to," not the meaning "to cut, chop"), all words from the Germanic roots of English, and to "glue," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. "Clue" goes back to Indo European ""gleuh/gleih," which had the notion of "stick together, adhere." This gave Old Germanic "kliwjo(n)," meaning,  "something stuck together, a mass, something clumped into a ball." This gave Old English "cliewen" meaning, "a ball or clump," then "ball or clump of thread," and this then became "clewe," then "clew," then "clue" (perhaps influenced by some French spellings?). The meaning "ball of thread" was long the meaning, but the more modern meaning comes via Greek mythology where Theseus used a ball of thread to guide him out of a maze (used as "clew/clue ball," circa 1600); thus in English, this usage then took on the broader sense (circa 1625?), "something that guides and gives direction to solve a problem." Used in a negative sense in like, "That guy hasn't a clue where he is," with the general meaning "bewildered, not have an idea about something." The early to mid 1930s saw the development of the verb form meaning, "to give information to help point one in a particular direction," not long thereafter almost always used with "in," as with, "Clue me in on how to use this new app." Low German has both "Kluven" and "Kloen" ("ball of thread"),^ Dutch has "kluwen" ("ball of thread"), German has modern "Knäuel" (ball of yarn, ball of twine/thread), and the spelling with the "n" came about through a variant pronunciation in the Middle Ages of German "kliuwel," itself a diminutive form of German "kliuwe," Frisian once had "kliwen," but I cannot find anything beyond that, and Old Norse had "kle" ("ball," also "ball of wool?"), but the word seems to have died out in Old Norse, and thus, in the North Germanic languages.

 

^ Low German is not a standard language, but rather a collection of dialects; thus, it is not totally uncommon to see more than one form of a word by regions, or even totally different words.