Blue Hawaiian Cocktail

This cocktail was invented in the late 1950s in what was still the United States Territory of Hawaii. It was in August of 1959 that Hawaii became the 50th state. There are variations to recipes for this cocktail.

Ingredients (per drink):

1 1/2 ounces light/white rum
1 ounce blue curaçao
2 ounces pineapple juice
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
3/4 ounce cream of coconut
pineapple and a cherry for garnish

Mix together the rum, blue curaçao, pineapple juice, lemon juice and coconut cream; pour into an ice filled glass. Garnish with one or two pieces of pineapple and a cherry.

WORD HISTORY:
Ocular-This word is related to "eye," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Ocular" goes back to Indo European "okew/okw," which meant, "to see." This gave Latin the noun "okulus," which meant, "eye." This produced the adjective "ocularis," meaning, "belonging to, or having to do with the eyes." This was borrowed into English as "ocular" in the early part of the 1500s.    

Polynesian Chicken

When I see or hear the term "Polynesian Chicken," I think of pineapple. I checked something like 25 recipes prior to writing this, and all but ONE had pineapple as one of the ingredients. I believe I'd only had "Polynesian Chicken" once or twice in my life, but it doesn't seem to be a recipe that is very commonly made today. My recollection is that when I was a kid the dish was much more common, perhaps because Hawaii had recently become a state. Hm, Hawaii and pineapple, gee who would have thunk... ah, thought it? Anyway, I was watching an episode of the 1960's comedy, "McHale's Navy," and "Polynesian Chicken" was part of the story. That made me wonder just what I knew about this dish. As I checked various recipes, I found that pineapple and pineapple juice were the ingredients that seemed to make the dish "Polynesian," although some recipes also included pieces of orange, while others used lemon peel, as well orange juice, lemon juice or lime juice. I fixed the "Polynesian Chicken" a couple of ways, as one had more vinegar and soy sauce than the recipe below, but I didn't really care for that version. I really like the version I put together below, and I will likely make it again soon.  

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cubed (I used 1/2 pound white + 1/2 pound dark)
2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
1 cup chopped green onion (with some green)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup rice vinegar (or cider vinegar)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon lime juice

3 tablespoons butter 

2/3 teaspoon ground white pepper (black pepper is fine too)

3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch (depending upon desired thickness) mixed with an equal amount of water

2 tablespoons oil (canola or vegetable oil)

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the ginger, the green onion and the red bell pepper. When these ingredients begin to soften (they will cook further), add the pineapple juice and let it heat. Add the chicken, the pineapple, the brown sugar, the honey, the vinegar, the soy and the ketchup; stir to mix well. Cook until the chicken is tender. Add the white pepper and the lime juice, stir to mix. Gradually add the cornstarch and water mixture, stirring constantly, and maintaining the heat level until the desired thickness is reached. Add the butter and stir until the butter is melted and mixed in. Serve with rice.

WORD HISTORY:
Ukulele-The more distant history of this word for a small guitar type of instrument is tough to track down with any certainty, but the first part of word is related to "cootie," a general slang English word for "louse." The word "cootie" was borrowed in southeastern Asia from Malay "kutu" during British involvement there,^ and during the trench warfare of World War One, and the resulting lice infestations, the word became popularized as a slang term in English. "Kutu" meant "small insect, flea." "Lele" meant "jump, leap," so the compound literally meant, "jumping flea or insect," perhaps from the notion of the fingers "jumping" from string to string? The ukulele seems to have been a Hawaiian version of a similar instrument, the machete, they'd seen and experienced from the Portuguese who brought it to Hawaii in the mid 1800s. English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1800s. When I was a kid, ukuleles were very popular, helped along by Arthur Godfrey, an American television personality, who played the ukulele on his show. In the 1960s, along came musician Tiny Tim, and he too became famous for his ukulele play, especially his signature song, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."       

^ "Malay" is from the overall Austronesian family of languages of southeast Asia and many Pacific islands, where "Malay" is part of the subfamily "Malayo-Polynesian." 

A Preemptive Strike by Trump

A day or so ago, Donald Trump stated at a rally that he feared the election would be "rigged." With this statement, he is setting up his followers for a loss, and like everything else disliked by Donald Trump, he will say it wasn't fair. Some of his supporters will then likely do anything up to, and including, outright rebellion. Just a guess, but it wouldn't surprise me if many of his followers believe in werewolves and vampires, and I'll bet a fair number still believe Obama is not a native born American, but rather that he is definitely a secret Muslim, born overseas, and since they likely also equate Muslims with terrorism, that Obama is rooting for terrorists. Trump cleverly cultivated the "birther issue," * just as Hitler and Germany's right wing cultivated the "November criminals" ** and used anti-Jewish sentiment to blame Germany's Jews for EVERYTHING!

Everything about Trump and his most fanatical stormtroopers.... I mean supporters, needs to be spelled out to the American public. Political consultants should never "assume" Americans "know" anything! Political junkies who follow events closely seem to fail to realize at times that many Americans are not glued to their televisions awaiting the next bit of political information. They MUST be led by the hand to valid information, or to information to give a perspective to information already out in the public. This is NOT a typical presidential election year! The deck isn't stacked, but the cards have been reshuffled!

An acquaintance says I see too many fascists in life. Well I don't, but I do know some werewolves. Ahhhoooooooooooooooo!

* For information on the use of "the November criminals," use this link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/06/german-question-part-one-hundred-two.html 

** The "birther" issue was the belief by some Americans, mainly Republicans, that Barack Obama was not legally President of the United States, because he was not an American citizen by birth. What better way to discredit the election of the nation's first African-American president, and to say, "he's NOT one of "us?" This is how deep racism still runs in this country. While there were different aspects to this overall conspiracy, the main body of "Birthers" claimed Obama had been born in Kenya. Donald Trump latched onto the issue and became something of the main spokesman for the "Birthers," as they came to be called. He and others demanded to see the President's actual birth certificate, a confirmation of which had been provided by the State of Hawaii when Obama filed to run for the presidency. Eventually, Obama signed forms  permitting the release of his actual birth record by Hawaii, but that didn't stop some of the conspiracy mongers, some of whom seemed to indicate the birth record had been planted in Hawaiian records years ago. Like Donald Trump, when confronted by facts, they refused to believe anything, including the birth notices in Hawaiian newspapers. Of course, no evidence was ever provided by these "Birther" folks, who should be asked to provide the forms showing they were legally released from mental institutions. The whole thing was a gigantic waste of time about a bunch of absolute nonsense, led and used by one Donald Trump.   

WORD HISTORY:
-some-This is the suffix used on many words, like "awesome," "meddlesome," "twosome" and "quarrelsome," but it is, indeed, related to "some." ^ It goes back to the Indo European root "sem," which had the notion of "one, together, united." This gave Indo European "samos/somos"), which meant "same." Sanskrit, an ancient Indo European language (still in use on a limited basis, primarily in India) had "sama(h)," which meant "identical," and also "level, even," all obviously with the basic meaning of "same." The Indo European form gave its Old Germanic offspring "samaz," with the "same" basic meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "-sum," with the meaning, "same as,^^ together as." This then became the suffix "-some," initially with the "e" pronounced as "eh/ah," before the modern pronunciation. German, a close cousin to English, has and uses "-sam" as a suffix.  
^ For the extensive history of "some," use this link to my article with that Word History:
 http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/01/german-question-part-seventy-four.html 

^^ "Same as," from the notion, "with the same 'collected' traits, characteristics."