Middle Eastern Black Tea & Sage

Tea is a common drink in area of the Middle East and North Africa. This black tea and sage is pretty common in parts of the western Middle East, including part of Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. I like tea and I like sage, so this is a drink made for me.

 

Ingredients (per serving):

1 teaspoon black tea (or 1 teabag)

3 or 4 sage leaves (or 1 heaping teaspoon crumbled dried sage leaves, NOT rubbed sage)

1 cup boiling water

honey(or sugar)

Bring the water to a boil in a pan. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add the tea and the sage leaves. Cover the pan and allow the tea to sit for about 3 1/2 to 5 minutes, depending upon how strong you like your tea. Add honey (or sugar) to sweeten the tea to your preference. (Note: some people add the sweetener, typically sugar, right in the pan to dissolve as the water heats up.)

 

Milder tea (reddish in color) ...

Darker and stronger tea...

 

WORD HISTORY:

Algebra-When I was in school, "algebra" was like a dirty word; in fact, I'd have rather said, "heck," "darned" or "dang it," than utter the word "algebra." The word "algebra" was borrowed into English in the mid 1500s from the Latin word of the same spelling. Latin had borrowed the word in the 1100s with the Latin translation from Arabic of transliterated, "al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa al-muqabala" (The Compendium of Calculation by Restoration and Balancing," which has other translations^). Transliterated "al-jabr," a noun, is from the verb "jabara," meaning, "to set, to restore," from Semitic "jbr/gbr," meaning,  "to become strong, to strengthen;" thus also, "to gain, to triumph."

  

^ By the way, the book also helped immensely in the adoption of Arabic numbers into Europe, an adoption that gradually replaced the use of Roman numerals as the main way to write and display numbers.

Algerian Sweet Couscous: Mesfouf

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

Ingredients: 

 

1 1/2 cups Moroccan couscous

1 2/3 cups water

4 tablespoons melted butter + 1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup golden raisins 

1/4 cup chopped dates

2 to 3 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

chopped nuts like hazelnuts or almonds

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

 

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

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

 

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

WORD HISTORY:

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

Kenyan Curried Cabbage

Kenya is a country in eastern Africa. It has a pretty diverse population and its official languages are Swahili* and English. Kenyans have much Indian influence in their cooking, with "chapati,"** a type of flatbread, being one of those influences. In the first couple of decades of the 20th Century, thousands of Indians went to Kenya when both countries were under British colonial rule. This curry is another of the Indian influences on Kenya. This is not a spicy "hot" dish, but if you like spicy heat, you could add a chili pepper or two to the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
1 carrot, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon salt 

In a large skillet, heat the oil over low heat, then add the onion. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the cabbage and carrot (it will look like a mountain, but it will cook down). Cook over low heat until the vegetables soften. Combine the milk, curry powder and flour, mix well, then add it to the cabbage/carrot and stir it in well. Cook for a couple of minutes, then season with salt and white pepper. 

* Swahili is a language of the Bantu family of languages, a branch of the broader Niger/Congo family of languages.  

** "Chapati" is easy to make:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/easy-flatbread-of-indian-subcontinent.html

WORD HISTORY:
Bwana-This word is distantly related to "abbot," a word borrowed by English from Latin long ago, but "abbot" is a word which traces back to the Middle East. While in modern times "bwana" has often been used in a comical or disparaging way in English, because of racism, its heritage is anything but comical or disparaging. It goes back to transliterated Semitic^ "ab," meaning "father," and "bna," meaning "our;" thus, "our father," "head of the family," and by extension, "leader." This gave its transliterated Arabic offspring "abuna," with the same meanings. This was borrowed by Swahili (see note * above) as "bwana," meaning, "leader, master." With European colonization of Africa and the exploration of remote areas of the large continent, English came into contact with the word "bwana" through Swahili, and it often came to be used by the African workers for the "white" leader of a safari. The word was borrowed by English in the last quarter of the 1800s.

^  The Semitic languages are a group of related languages "centered" in the Middle East and eastern Africa, but also spoken beyond those areas. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya, but in ancient times Semitic included Assyrian and Phoenician, which was spoken in the Middle East and in North Africa by the Carthaginians.    

East of Eden: The Miniseries, Part Two

For Part One, this is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/east-of-eden-miniseries-part-one.html


Samuel Hamilton, using a divining rod, tells Adam there is plenty of water on the land Adam wants to buy and that he and his sons will dig the wells and build the windmills for Adam's new place. Adam then spins off into idealism, as he tells Samuel how Cathy has brought a light into his life. He says he wants to make a beautiful garden that is fitting for her light to shine on. Samuel sits silently on his horse listening to Adam, but his expression seems to tell us he's concerned that Adam is a man just asking to be hurt, emotionally. Finally Samuel tells Adam again that he'll get him water and that "you'll have your Eden."

Adam buys the land and the development all starts, as the house begins to rise, along with other structures for the new place, and Samuel and his sons begin to drill for water. The ever resourceful Will Hamilton is owed money by his brother Tom, so he makes a deal to forgive Tom's debt in exchange for Tom taking on Will's workload too. When the house is finished, Adam hires a Chinese servant named Lee, a man who dresses in Chinese clothing and who speaks in pidgin. Cathy is uneasy with Lee and she treats him rudely. She is also upset with her distended abdomen, since she long ago learned how to use her looks to get what she wanted from boys and men. When Cathy goes into labor, Lee rides to get Samuel Hamilton at the drilling site, as Samuel has delivered at least four of his own children, and likely all nine, as well as some children of neighbors. When Samuel arrives at the house, Cathy has had Adam put blankets over the bedroom windows and Samuel tells Adam to take the blankets down so he can have natural light in the room. Adam declines, saying that "the light hurts her eyes." When Samuel insists that the windows be uncovered and that Adam leave the room, Adam balks, but Samuel threatens to leave, and Adam agrees. Cathy tells Samuel, "Get that lousy Chink out of here too." Samuel tells her he will need Lee's help, then, when Samuel goes to her bedside and asks if the water has broken, Cathy hisses like a serpent and snarls at him. Samuel again threatens to walk out, and Cathy sees that she needs him, so she settles down. Samuel takes out a large rope, fixes the ends to the lower bedposts and hands the middle of the now extended rope to Cathy to pull on when she is delivering. Samuel again moves close to Cathy and when one of his hands gets close, Cathy grabs the side of his hand with her teeth and won't let go. Samuel has to begin to choke her to get her to loosen her bite. Lee tells Samuel, "The woman is a demon," and Samuel tells Lee to get some whiskey to pour over the wound, and Lee says, "I'll get it and a clean rag to wrap it up in." Even with the tense situation, Samuel notices that Lee has spoken in clear English, and when he asks Lee to repeat what he said, Lee does so, but in pidgin. Just then Cathy screams and within moments she delivers a baby, a boy. Samuel goes out of the room to tell Adam he has a son, and Adam starts to enter the bedroom, but retreats with a sickly look on his face, as Samuel tells him he hasn't had a chance to clean up everything yet. Cathy screams again and Samuel goes back into the bedroom only to see another baby, also a boy, is being born. As Samuel prepares to leave a while later, he tells Cathy she has two sons, but that they are not alike, as each was born separately in his own sack. He offers to show the babies to Cathy, but she refuses, even saying, "I don't want them." Samuel tells her, "I don't like you Mrs. Trask," and this brings the faintest smile to Cathy's face. She asks for Adam and she has him cover the windows again, telling him, "I want to be in the dark."

Outside, Lee tries talking to Samuel in pidgin, but Samuel tells him it's too late, that he knows Lee is likely an educated man and probably a Christian. Lee says he spent "a couple of years at the University of California; nothing to shoot off rockets about." He then tells Samuel that he was a Presbyterian for a time, but that, "I've gone back to dragons and demons. They don't make any less sense." Samuel asks Lee why he used pidgin, to which Lee replies, "It's what's expected." (NOTE: Chinese immigrants were greatly discriminated against in the era of the 1800s and the early 1900s.) Lee and Samuel begin a little discussion, which shows the beginnings of their friendship, and their common curiosity and interest in learning, as contrasted to Cathy's, "I want to be in the dark." Lee tells Samuel that he's a good servant, but Samuel then asks what kind of a wet nurse he'll be, since Mrs. Trask has no milk, and she wouldn't nurse the babies even if she had it. He tells Lee of how as a boy in Ulster (Ireland) his father had taken him into town, where a murderer was about to be hanged. The condemned man looked right down at little Samuel from the platform, and Samuel says the man had the strangest eyes, that his eyes weren't human, but rather like the eyes of a goat. Samuel tells Lee that he had never seen such eyes again until he saw Cathy. He finishes by saying that he fears for the boys.

About a week passes and Cathy arranges for Lee to go into town on a Friday and not return until Monday. The workers still putting up other buildings take their leave for the weekend and Adam goes to Cathy, who is dressed to go out. She bluntly tells Adam she is leaving him. She also tells him, "I'm not what you think I am. I tried to be, I really tried, but I just can't do it." She tells Adam that everybody will be better off without her and she even mentions that there are things about her that Adam and the others don't know about. Adam panics and shoves Cathy into the room and locks the door, but now Cathy turns on the charm and begs Adam to open the door, which he does. There stands Cathy with a gun pointed right at Adam, and she fires, causing Adam to fall to the floor as the two babies cry and Cathy goes out the door. Later, we learn that Lee came home early and found Adam, but Adam tells the sheriff (played by American actor Emmet Walsh) he wounded himself by accident. The sheriff knows he's lying, but Samuel, who is present, gets the sheriff to ease up, because Adam just doesn't care. By the way, the sheriff calls Lee, "Ching Chang," so Lee speaks in pidgin to him. Adam tells Samuel he'll pay him for his work, but he doesn't want the work on the wells completed. Samuel tells Adam to act out being alive and that eventually it will be true.

The scene shifts into the town of Monterey, to "Whorehouse Row" there. The sheriff finds Cathy working at one of the whorehouses. She now goes by "Kate Albey," and she has dyed her hair. The sheriff sets down the conditions for Kate to continue at the whorehouse: don't steal from the customers, don't shoot anybody else and don't go anywhere near her sons, because he doesn't want the boys to grow up and find out their mother was a whore. In walks Faye, the madam of the whorehouse, and a person who is already well on her way to being played by Kate. Faye relies on Kate to manage much of the business, and she tells Kate that she no longer wants her to have "clients," because she is like a daughter to her, so she'll still pay her the same amount of money. Faye also goes to her attorney and has a will drawn up making Kate her sole heir. Faye gives Kate a glass of wine to celebrate the occasion. Faye tells Kate that she has plenty of money and that she is thinking of selling the house and then the two of them will go to Europe. Kate rebels a bit at the thought, telling Kate that they can even make more money. As Kate drinks, Faye notes that she looks different, and Kate says, "I'm going to really show you how to run a whorehouse." Faye is now fearful of how Kate is acting. Kate then tells her she hasn't given up her regular "clients" as she promised Faye, but she in fact charges these clients far more than the going price at the house, because, "no one else is good enough for them." She tells Faye that the house will now be run like that, but Faye tells her to leave. Kate forces Faye to down a bottle of paregoric,*  as she holds a broken wine glass to Faye's throat. We next see Kate giving orders to the piano player at the house,** and the implication is, Faye is dead.***

More than a year passes and Samuel Hamilton rides over to the Trask place, where he sees everything more or less as it was left the day Cathy shot Adam. Even the buggy that Adam had bought upon their arrival in California still sits partially covered by grass and weeds grown high. He calls in a firm voice for Adam, who finally comes out onto the porch with one child waddling behind and Lee carrying the other boy another step or two behind him. This sets up one of the most memorable scenes of the miniseries. Samuel raises his voice as he tries to get through to Adam, who is still a broken man. He tells Adam he has heard that Adam has not even named his sons. Samuel yells at Adam, "What do you call them, 'This' and 'That,' 'Thing' and 'Thong,' or do you just whistle for them like a couple of puppies?" When Adam admits he hasn't named the boys, Samuel hits him, knocking him to the ground, although the exertion causes Samuel to gasp for breath, which is a hint that Samuel is not well. Adam says, "Their mother left them motherless," but Samuel yells back, "And you have left them fatherless! Get up so as I can knock you down again." This brings Adam to say, "I wouldn't try it old man... and you ARE an old man," but Samuel replies with one of the great lines I've always remembered, "Not so old as you, if it's measured by meanness and self pity." When Samuel tells Adam he'll hit him again, Adam has reawakened to life and he tells Samuel that there's no need to hit him again, and he admits he has been wrong. Lee smiles as he stands nearby. Samuel says that Adam should name the boys now, and he tells Adam he has brought along his family Bible to find the names.

As Adam and Samuel sit and sip some wine, before naming the boys, Adam asks him if Cathy was beautiful. Samuel answers, "To you she was, because she was your creation, but I don't believe you ever really saw her." Samuel asks why Adam now has the sudden curiosity about Cathy, and Adam says he wants to know what kind of blood is in his boys. This brings Samuel to tell him not to put things about blood onto them. Lee joins in and the three discuss some possible names for the boys, including some biblical names, like Adam's own name, Joshua and Cain or Abel, with the latter two names leading them into a discussion about the biblical story and its meaning. Lee's feeling is that God simply had a preference for lamb over vegetables, the products offered to God from the labors of Abel and of Cain, individually. It brings Adam to wonder in a muttering to himself if the Lord may have had a preference for a puppy over a pearl handled pocketknife. Samuel reads the story aloud from his Bible, then says how dreadful the story really is, as it is without any encouragement. This brings Lee to inject, "I'm not so sure." He goes on to explain that God protected Cain, even though he had murdered his brother. "God must have seen something worthwhile in Cain." Samuel then says how this is true, since Cain lived and had children, while Abel only lives in the story. Adam sits by thoughtfully listening, obviously thinking of his brother Charles and their father, but he finally asks Samuel if we share in Cain's guilt, which Samuel answers affirmatively, noting that we are all descendants of Cain. This gives Adam the opening to ask an uncomfortable Samuel how this then plays into his feeling that blood doesn't matter. Samuel can't answer and he diverts the conversation back to the naming of the boys. When the name "Caleb" is mentioned, one of the nearby sleeping boys awakens, and so he has chosen his own name. Samuel says Caleb made it to the promised land. He then suggests Aaron, a name he says he has always liked, but that Aaron didn't make it to the promised land, but Adam agrees anyhow. (Note: The Trasks use the spelling "Aron.") Samuel prepares to leave and he shakes Adam's hand, and he gives a hug to Lee, who now gives a concerned expression with Samuel's action. As Samuel puts his Bible into the saddlebag on his horse, he tells Adam he has heard about Cathy. He tells him about Monterey and the whorehouse, with Lee nodding in agreement, but now Adam reverts to the old Adam and to his mind's own Cathy creation. Adam blurts out, "That's a lie!" Samuel assures him that it is true, because he's heard it from numerous people. Adam stomps off.  Samuel leaves.

Later inside the house, Adam tells Lee that he didn't need to hear that kind of news of Cathy, but Lee tells him that Samuel needed to say it, because he's dying. At first, Adam is shocked, but then he recalls Samuel hitting him and notes that it wasn't a very strong punch, even though Samuel was furious at him. The scene shifts to Samuel's funeral, where Adam removes the flower from his lapel and places it into Samuel's hand. Lee then stoops down and utters a word, "timshel," toward Samuel's ear. He later explains to Adam that it all went back to their discussion of Cain and Abel and about various biblical translations of the Hebrew word "timshel." He says the translation is important, because it has been translated as "thou shalt rule over sin," a promise, and also as, "thou must rule over sin," a command. Lee says he discussed the translation of "timshel" with four old Chinese scholars and a learned rabbi over a period of two years (which now tells us how much time has passed since the naming of the boys), so that the six of them finally came to the conclusion that the best English translation is, "thou mayest;" that is, it offers people a choice between good and evil, but it is that, "a choice, free will." Lee says he wanted to tell Samuel all of this, but he was too late, and Samuel died, but Adam assures him that Samuel likely heard it.

As they drive off in a buggy, Lee is troubled to hear from Adam that he is going to go to Monterey. Lee tells him to leave Cathy alone and move on with his life, comparing such things to a moth flying into a candle's flame until it is destroyed, but Adam firmly tells Lee to stay out of it, and that if he doesn't like it, he can seek employment elsewhere. Lee tells Adam he would, except that Samuel's ghost would haunt him for leaving the still young boys at this time in their lives. Adam goes to Monterey and goes to the whorehouse, now called "Kate's." He asks Kate (he still calls her Cathy) if she wants to know about the two boys, but she says "no." He tells her he heard about her and the house, but that he didn't believe it and he needed to see for himself. He asks if she actually "works" in the house, or if she just runs it. Kate can see how Adam still wants to believe in her and says such, implying in her words how untrue Adam's image of her really is. He finally admits to her that Charles had been right about her, so he says he'll now go. Up to this point, Kate has been rather subdued, but now, sensing Adam's need of her, she turns to her manipulative self and tries to lure him into having sex with her, but the spell is broken, and Adam forcibly removes Kate's hands from him, prompting Kate to cry out, which brings her bodyguard/bouncer charging into the room. He and Adam fight and the man knocks Adam to the floor, where he lies motionless. Kate orders him to "Give him the boots," but the man tells her there is no fight left in Adam. She orders the man from the room and then she tells Adam that she always thought he was a fool, but that now, she hates him. Adam tells Kate he had really loved her, so much that, "it took quite a killing." Adam struggles to his feet and begins to leave, while Kate tells him how he'll come back, begging for her, but Adam is silent. Sensing that's she's lost her hold on Adam, she angrily tells Adam, "They're not your sons." Adam stops, and now sensing that she has regained the initiative, she gives off an evil smirk. When Adam mentions how hurt she had been back then, she quickly says, "I wasn't too hurt for Charles." She quickly recounts some of the events from back in Connecticut, leaving Adam with the thought, "Now that you know me a little better, maybe you'll wonder in whose bed I spent my wedding night." Adam leaves....

More in the final part, Part 3...

* Paregoric is a medicine with opium as one of its ingredients. I don't really hear about it in recent times, although that doesn't mean it isn't still in use, but when I was a kid and into adulthood, it was a common drug for treating diarrhea.                

** The piano player at the whorehouse is played by Stymie Beard, famous for having played in the popular "Our Gang" short film series in the 1930s (the series itself ran far longer than Stymie's stint in the shows, and there were numerous cast changes as the kids outgrew their roles). The series was released to television in the 1950s and became popular fare for decades. I wouldn't be surprised if the films are still shown on television somewhere.

*** The miniseries is very faithful to Steinbeck's book, with few exceptions, but I've always found Faye's gradual death in the book, due to poisoning by Kate, to be one of the weakest parts of the book. The scene in the miniseries is even less believable, in my opinion, although later on we hear a bartender tell Adam that Faye was ill for two months before she died and that her cause of death was given as food poisoning, which ties it more closely to the book, but my question is, after Kate's nasty performance with Faye in the miniseries, how did Kate let her live two months without Faye telling others about what Kate was really like? Anyone for a shot of paregoric? 

Photo is of the back of the case for the 2009 Acorn Media DVD for Volume 2 

 WORD HISTORY:
Eden-For such an important term in religious belief and symbolism, this word's ancient history is uncertain, although it seems to go back to transliterated Semitic "edhen," meaning, "a pleasure, something delightful," but whether the word originated in Semitic or in another language family is unknown. The idea of "a delightful place," thus also meant, "garden," or perhaps, "oasis," as many places where Semitic was (and is) spoken were often hot, desert or barren land. Some speculate that the original idea was a "plain with flowing water;" thus, the land had lots of vegetation, making it a garden, which then was used in Hebrew for the biblical "Garden of Eden," a paradise, because its water provided plants and animals with the means to easily thrive and survive. "Eden" is thought by some, perhaps many, to be the same word as "Aden," which is a city in modern Yemen. There is also the "Gulf of Aden," the water area around the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea and their connection into the larger Indian Ocean.

Turkish Beyti Kebab

Kebabs are a common type of food for Turkish people. Kebabs are often grilled or baked on skewers, or sometimes they are just cooked as patties, with various meats, seafood or vegetables (or a combination of these). I couldn't find any good sources for the history of this type of kebab, "Beyti" (pronounced as if, "bay-ty"), with some saying it dates back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, but it then was revived in the 1960s, in Istanbul, while others seem to feel it was invented in the 1960s in Istanbul. Turkey's capital of Istanbul is certainly a common tie to the differing opinions. 

Ingredients (for 6 kebabs):

Kebabs:
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon serrano or jalapeño chili, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
6 flour tortillas, the 6 inch type
melted butter for brushing
bell pepper (red, orange, yellow or green), baked, grilled or fried, cut into strips (or you can use store bought roasted peppers) 
Greek-style plain yogurt (about 1 cup)

Tomato Sauce:
1  15 ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup fresh tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a bowl, mix the lamb, onion, chili pepper, black pepper, cumin, coriander, breadcrumbs, salt and milk. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. For the sauce: In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and let cook about about 2 minutes, then add the garlic and chopped tomatoes. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in the tomato sauce and cook until the mixtures begins to bubble. Reduce heat to low and add the dried mint. Cook for about 2 minutes. For the meat: Roll the meat mixture into sausages of about 1 inch wide, 5 1/2 inches long and one inch deep. If you want to put the meat on skewers for grilling, you can soak wooden skewers in water for about 20 minutes, or use metal skewers, and put the meat onto the skewers. Grill, turning occasionally to make sure the meat cooks evenly. Otherwise, heat the oven to 350 F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Arrange the meat on the sheet (no skewers needed). Bake until totally cooked through, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Wrap each kebab in a tortilla, and brush with melted butter. Place seam side down and cut each wrapped kabab into three  pieces. On a platter, put about a cup of plain Greek-style yogurt in the center. Arrange the kebab pieces around the yogurt. Spoon the tomato sauce over the kebab pieces. Scatter the pepper strips over the top of the kebabs, or serve in a separate dish on the side. For individual servings, place pieces of kebab on a plate, add a couple tablespoons of yogurt to one side and spoon some tomato sauce over the kebabs. Add the pepper strips.


I made an individual serving, with a few pieces of kebab covered in sauce, and with some pepper strips and yogurt to the side of the plate

WORD HISTORY:
Kebab-This word, also spelled, "kabob," "kebob," along with some others, has an uncertain distant history. It seems to go back to transliterated Afro-Asiatic "kahbah," which meant, "to burn, to roast, to cook." This "apparently" gave a similar form to its offspring, "Semitic," ^ which was passed to Aramaic, one of the Semitic languages, which was a common language long ago, as transliterated  "kahbaba" (?), meaning "burn(ing), (roast(ing), char(ring)." This gave Arabic transliterated "kabab," meaning, "cooked/roasted meat," which was borrowed into Turkish as "kebap." Borrowed by English in the latter part of the 1700s from Arabic, with reinforcement from Turkish.  

^ Semitic is a language family centered in the Middle East. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation. Aramaic, also a Semitic language, was once fairly widespread in part of the Middle East, but it receded with the spread of  Arabic. 

What's In A Name: Peter, Rebecca

Peter-This male name goes back to Greek "Petros," meaning "stone," as a translation of Aramaic* "Cephas," the name given to Simon by Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible. Latin took the name as "Petrus," and it spread to other European languages by way of Christianity. The feminine form is "Petra," meaning "rock," as in "rock formation." The Norman influence in England brought the form "Piers" into use, but the English form "Peter" rebounded after a century or two, and it has remained the main form in English. Other European forms: Italian "Pietro," Spanish "Pedro," German "Peter" and "Petrus," French "Pierre," Serbian and Croatian "Petar." "Pete" is a common shortened form of "Peter."  

Rebecca-This female name goes back to transliterated Semitic** "rbq," which had the notion, "to tie together, to bind;" thus further, "to join." This gave transliterated Hebrew "ribqah," meaning, "connection, joined, teamed," thus the basis for the name of the biblical wife of Isaac. The name was translated into transliterated Greek as "Rhebekka," which was taken by Latin as "Rebecca."  The name was not common in English until the 1500s. The spelling "Rebekka" is an alternative form in English, as well as a primary form in a number of languages, like Norwegian, Dutch and some others. "Becky" is a common shortening for "Rebecca."

* Aramaic is a Middle Eastern Semitic language (see next note) akin to Hebrew.

** Semitic is a language family centered in the Middle East. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation. 


I consulted the following, so for more information on any of the names see, 1) "A World Of Baby Names" by Teresa Norman, published by Perigee/Penguin Group, New York, 2003. 2) "A Greek-English Lexicon," by Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Roderick McKenzie, and Eric Arthur Barber, published by Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1940. 3) Behindthename.com

WORD HISTORY: 
Rock-This is the noun^ for "stone." The ultimate origin is unknown. It appears in Old English in the compound "stanrocc" (literally "stone rock"), but meaning, "high pile of stones, column of stone, obelisk," with the "rocc" part a borrowing from Latin  "rocca." This was later reinforced and given staying power by Norman French "roche/roce," which was also from the Latin form.

^ The verb "rock," with the meaning, "to move something back and forth, to make something move in such a way," is an original English word from Germanic. It also came to be applied to the "rock" part of, "rock-n-roll." It is a completely different word from the noun form above. For the verb's history, it is included in this article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/02/german-question-part-seventy-eight.html

Spanish Butter Bean & Chorizo Stew (Fabada Asturiana)

The Spanish name for this dish is "Fabada Asturiana," as it originated in the Asturias region (capital: Oviedo) of northwestern Spain, but the dish is not uncommon in other parts of Spain. I looked at so many recipes for this dish, I lost count, but 25 would be a good guess. Some used smoked pork belly or smoked pork hock or salt pork, but I chose, as I saw in some recipes, raw pork belly, but I added a small smoked pork hock, just to add a slight smoky flavor to the smokiness of the Spanish paprika. I used dried, and thus firm, Spanish chorizo,* which is also seasoned with paprika. I like to bake many dishes that others cook on the stove top, and this recipe was no exception. It would also be a good dish to fix in a crock pot. Frequently served in Spain with hard cider or red wine and good crusty bread. 

1 pound white beans (fabada beans, butter beans or cannellini/white kidney beans)
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 medium tomato, chopped 
3/4 pound raw pork belly (you can trim off some of the fat)
1/2 pound firm chorizo, cut into about 1/4 inch slices 
1/2 pound Spanish morcilla blood sausage (also called, "blood pudding"), cut into two inch pieces
1 small smoked pork hock (also called "ham hock")
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon sweet paprika, preferably Spanish, or Spanish-style
2 tablespoons olive oil
a good "pinch" of saffron threads (saffron is an expensive spice derived from the crocus flower. Many supermarkets or spice shops have it. The spice is a common addition to dishes in Spain; thus, I have used it in the Word History, below)
water

You can soak the dried beans overnight, or put them into a pot, cover them with water and bring the water to a boil. Add no salt to the water. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the beans soak in the hot water for 60 to 75 minutes. Drain. Heat the oven to 325 F. In a pot or casserole, put the beans, the onion, the garlic, the salt, the pepper, the paprika, the tomato, the olive oil and the saffron. Stir to mix the ingredients a bit. Add the bay leaf, and snuggle in the pork belly, the chorizo slices, the morcilla and the pork hock. Add enough water to almost cover everything. Cover and bake for 75 minutes. Check to see if the dish needs water added (the beans won't cook properly if they don't have water). Bake until the beans and the pork belly are tender. The paprika from the chorizo and the loose paprika, along with the saffron, will give a reddish color to the stew. You can further slice down the morcilla blood sausage before serving.  

* Americans and Canadians are much more familiar with the soft chorizo which is common in Mexico, but most Spanish chorizo is more the texture of salami or pepperoni. 

WORD HISTORY:
Saffron-The ultimate origin of this word for the expensive thread-like spice taken from the crocus flower is unknown, although an Indo European or a Semitic origin seems likely, due to the plant's history in the general area of the Middle East, where people speaking Indo European and Semitic languages interacted, sometimes peacefully, but sometimes violently. Arabic, a language from the Semitic family of languages,^ had the transliterated "zafaran," as the word for the spice. Latin borrowed the word as "safranum," and this became "safran," in Latin-based Old French. English borrowed the word in the early 1200s. Spanish has azafrán.

^  The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation. 

Tandoori-Style Chicken, An Indian & Pakistani Dish

The name of this dish comes from a particular type of oven used on the Indian subcontinent, called a "tandoor" (see Word History below), a large vase-like oven usually made of clay. The ovens, with coals and wood in the bottoms, can reach temperatures of between 800 and 1000 degrees F. These ovens are also used to bake the famous "naan bread," which is why the bread has little charred spots on it. Of course, many Indian restaurants worldwide use these ovens too. You won't have to send for this oven, however, as your own oven can do the work, it will just take a little longer for the chicken to cook. I've read where the chicken will cook in like 8 to 12 minutes in a tandoor. 

Ingredients:

2 pounds of chicken parts (legs and thighs, or you can use all the same, if you'd like)
1 teaspoon salt
juice of one lemon
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoon paprika (plus more for dusting)
1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (1 teaspoon will not add much heat)
1 tablespoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon garam masala (a spice mix common in India and Pakistan, available in many supermarkets)
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil (this is needed only if you skin the chicken)
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
lemon or lime wedges for serving

In India and Pakistan they use chicken pieces without the skin, but I kept it on and it turned out great.* Cut some slits in the meat clear to the bone, so that the marinade will penetrate and it will also help the chicken to cook quickly. I used all thighs and I cut three 1 1/2 inch slits in each. Mix the spices, ginger, garlic, lemon juice and yogurt in a bowl. I used large freezer bags to marinate the chicken. Put the chicken pieces into the bags, then add the yogurt/seasoning mixture. Close the bags and "squish" the marinade around to coat all of the chicken well. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, but 12 to 15 hours is better. Remove the bags from the refrigerator and let sit about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 550 (F). Take the chicken pieces from the bags and place them in one layer on a foil lined baking sheet.** Sprinkle each piece with a fair amount of paprika, but not to cover it. Bake for 30 minutes on middle rack. Use a knife or fork to see how close the chicken is to being done. I baked mine for a total of 40 minutes and it was perfect, but all ovens vary, and the size of the chicken pieces will also matter for cooking time, especially thighs, and I left the skin on too. The skin was crispy and marked with red from the paprika, and with some charred spots. Yummy! The meat itself was very tender and I could taste the wonderful spices, but not much heat from the cayenne. After removing the chicken from the oven, I let it set for about 5 minutes. Of course, there will be melted chicken fat on your tray, so be careful when taking it from the oven. Serve with lemon or lime wedges and naan bread if you have access to it.

* I looked at about a dozen recipes for this chicken and all but two removed the skin.

** Only two recipes mentioned wiping off the marinade, so I left it on, then sprinkled on the paprika. 

Click to enlarge the photo

Tandoor-This word seems to go back to the Semitic language family, more particularly, to Akkadian, a Semitic language of the Middle East that died out in about the 2nd Century A.D. Akkadian had the transliterated "tinuru," which meant oven, with the "nuru" part being derived from Semitic "nar," meaning "fire, heat." This was borrowed by Persian, an Indo European language related to English, further down the family tree, as "tanur," and this spread into Hindi and Urdu, both Indo European languages of the Indian subcontinent. Exactly when the word was borrowed into English is tough to say, but perhaps it was borrowed as early as the mid 1600s, due to England's trade and developing colonial interests in India, which then included modern Pakistan and Bangladesh. Certainly by the 20th Century the word had become somewhat more common in English, again from Britain's ties to the Indian subcontinent, but also because of Indian immigrants, not only to Britain, but also to North America. 

Sage & Cheese Stuffed Dates With Bacon

The idea for this simple recipe "seems likely" to have developed from Spanish tapas; that is, "snacks" of numerous types served at bars in Spain.

blue cheese (any type, including Gorgonzola, one of my favorite cheeses)
sage leaves
bacon
dates, pitted (large date types are naturally better for stuffing, but use what you have or what you can buy easily)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees (204 C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Soften the cheese a bit by mashing it down and stirring it, you don't want it too soft, and definitely not runny, so I wouldn't add any milk or cream. Slit open each date, then put a bit of the cheese inside, then put a sage leaf, or half of a larger leaf, on top of the cheese. Press the date together to close it somewhat, but it doesn't have to be totally closed. Cut the bacon slices about 3 inches, so that each slice wraps around a date just one time, with little overlap, then fix the bacon to the date with a toothpick. If you wrap the bacon double, it will not cook properly. Place the dates in the oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, checking to make sure they do not burn. If the bacon needs a little more time, keep the dates in the oven, but watch extra carefully.

WORD HISTORY:
Date-English has a couple words of this spelling, but they have different histories. This is the word for the fruit coming from a type of palm tree. The exact origin of this word is uncertain, but it most certainly seems to come from a Semitic language of the Middle East, as Hebrew has "deqel" and Arabic has "daqal," both meaning "date palm," the tree producing "dates." Greek applied the meaning to their word "daktylos," which meant "toe or finger," from the fruit's resemblance to a toe and the closeness of the Semitic word to their own. The Greek word is likely related to English "toe," going back to Indo European.^ Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "dactylus," and it was taken by French, a heavily Latin-based language, as "date." English borrowed the word from French circa 1300.

^ The Indo European root "deik" is the ancestor of "toe," but the meaning of the Indo European root had the notion of "point, show;" thus, the Old Germanic form was originally used for "finger," from the idea of "point, show," but then was used also for "toe." 

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki is a soy sauce based Japanese sauce used to glaze meats and fish before and during cooking. I love the sauce name, because I once had an acquaintance named Terry, who loved to talk, giving me the opening to dub him, "Terry Yackey." Hahaha! (RING! RING!) Me- "Hello." Voice on the telephone- "Hey Randy! It's Terry Yackey!" Me-"I'm going to be busy." Terry Yackey-"How long?"
Me-"Until I die."    

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup sweet mirin (sweet rice wine) * 
1 1/2  teaspoons fresh ginger, minced  
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
5 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 to 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (toast them a minute or 2 in a dry pan; that is, NO oil)
(Optional) 1 or 2 teaspoons of dark sesame oil (it adds great flavor)

Mix all but cornstarch, 1/4 cup of water, sesame oil and sesame seeds, in a sauce pan and heat over medium low heat, simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. Mix cornstarch and cold water in a cup and stir to make sure cornstarch is combined. Add to the sauce in pan and stir very well. Heat and stir until sauce thickens to desired thickness, add toasted sesame seeds, and sesame oil, if using, and stir well.

* Available in Asian markets, or in the Asian section of many supermarkets. 

 I put some of the teriyaki sauce on a white plate so it would show well. You can see the sesame seeds and maybe some bits of garlic or ginger.

WORD HISTORY:
Sesame-This word is for a plant that provides seeds used to obtain their oil, and the dried seeds are used to coat bread or rolls or as ingredients in some recipes. The word's origin is very likely the Semitic language family centered in the Middle East region. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya,^ but in ancient times it included Phoenician and Akkadian (spoken by the Babylonians). Phoenician was also spoken in North Africa by the Carthaginians, a people who had much contact with the Romans and Greeks. Ancient Greek borrowed the word, as "sesamon," from one of these Semitic languages, and then Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "sisamum." This gave French "sisame," and this was borrowed by English in the early 1400s, although its more general acceptance and usage in English did not occur until circa 1800, when the English translation of the Arabian Nights' story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" became popular, along with the magic words, "Open sesame!" 

^ Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation.

Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' Part One

I just want to set down a little basic historical information about this nation located in southeastern Europe. I hope some of you will take an interest and head to your local library to learn more about "Rumania" ... I mean "Romania." Actually, the form "Rumania," which I still use, is now considered outdated, with "Romania" being the preferred spelling. A good deal of my reading about this country over the years was done about its participation in World War Two, and it was done reading German text, which uses "Rumanien," so that likely has reinforced the use of "u" with me. I also recall seeing the spelling "Roumania," but I can't recall just where. Anyway, here's just a very brief sketch of "Rumania," the spelling I'll use. American readers should take note that somewhere between 500,000 and about a million Americans are of Rumanian descent.* For Clevelanders, a prominent Rumanian-American neighborhood has been on the near West Side in the Detroit-Shoreway area, where there have traditionally also been many Italian-Americans. There is a Rumanian Byzantine church on W. 65th Street and a Rumanian Orthodox church is located further out on the West Side of Cleveland on Warren Road.

The present day Rumanians trace back to an Indo European people called the Thracians, who also were known to some as the "Dacians," and indeed the Romans, who conquered the area inhabited by the Dacians in circa 105 A.D., called their colony "Dacia." This brought Latin to the region, and after all of these centuries, Latin is still the base of the modern Rumanian language, although a small number of words are presumed to have remained from Dacian, as these words do not seem to be linked to other languages which have had influences on Rumanian, like Slavic, which has provided a fair amount of borrowed vocabulary. German has also had some influence on vocabulary, as a sizable German settlement took place in Transylvania, known as "Siebenbürgen" in German (Seven Castles or Fortresses, after seven German fortified cities in the area).**

As Rome's empire struggled to endure incursions from invaders and internal strife, the Roman presence in Dacia diminished. Dacia too saw numerous invaders, including Magyars,*** who occupied the Transylvania area, although "seemingly" the native Dacians remained in the overall majority. The main regions of the area in southeastern Europe associated with Rumania are: Wallachia, Moldova, and Transylvania, but Bukovina, Dobruja, Bessarabia and part of the Banat also have connections, although often contested by other countries, as has been the case with much of Transylvania.**** One of the historical debates about the Rumanians has involved their ancestry. Generally, Rumanians have said they are from the Dacians, who withdrew to safer areas to avoid the invaders who rampaged through their territory. As the invasions subsided, these people gradually moved back into their former lands. This "history" certainly has support, as the Latin dialect continued to be spoken by the people, later known as Vlachs, which would seem to tie in with the Latin speaking Dacians of previous centuries. I'll come back to this in "Part Two," which will follow shortly.

* From U.S. Census Bureau.

** A number of these Germans, generally known as "Transylvanian Saxons," immigrated to Cleveland beginning in the late 1800s, and indeed the "Alliance of Transylvanian Saxons" is headquartered here on Pearl Road (in the Cleveland suburb of Parma).

*** The Magyars were an ancient people generally believed to have been from the area of western Asia, in the vicinity of the Ural Mountains. Like many tribes, they moved around, eventually moving into Europe and settling in what is now the general area of Hungary, where they formed the basis for the modern Hungarians. As with all of the groups mentioned in this article, extensive modern DNA testing will provide better information on the history of the various ethnic groups in history, thus "perhaps" superseding some of the assumptions made by historians over time.

**** When nobles ruled the various parts of Europe, they acquired lands through conquest, heredity or marriage, often irrespective of the ethnic-linguistic composition of any given area. Natural resources were often a major driving force to acquire an area, as such resources could provide a direct economic benefit, and could also be a powerful source of economic benefit by selling or trading those resources, or a specific resource, with those in need of such. For example, in more modern times, when oil and its derivatives came into prominence for fuel, nations with large oil reserves became very important. As nationalism among ethnic groups developed, especially more from the 1800s onward, boundary adjustments based upon those ethnic groups became a major source of confrontation, not that the national resource or industrial benefit of an area no longer mattered.

I consulted the following sources for this article: 

"Kingdoms of Europe" (Chapter 17, Kingdom of Romania) by Gene Gurney, published by Crown Publishers, Inc. NY 1982

"Romania/An Illustrated History" by Nicolae Klepper, published by Hippocrene Books, NY 2002

WORD HISTORY:
Map-This word "seems" to trace back to some Semitic language source, as Hebrew has "mappa," which seems to have meant "cloth," thus, "banner." The Semitic languages are a group of related languages "centered" in the Middle East and eastern Africa, but also spoken beyond those areas. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya,^ but in ancient times it included Phoenician, which was spoken in the Middle East and in North Africa by the Carthaginians, a people who had much contact with the Romans, and thus, Latin. Latin borrowed the word as "mappa," which meant "cloth," thus "tablecloth, towel, napkin, banner." This was then used in a compound by Latin as "mappa mundi," which meant "map of the world," with "map" essentially meaning "cloth with drawings of geographic features." Old French, a Latin based language inherited the term as "mapemonde, which was later shortened to just "mappe" in common speech. English borrowed the longer expression from French in the early 1500s, but quickly picked up the shortened version as "map."

^ Arabic and Hebrew are commonly known in much of Europe and North America, but Amharic is spoken in a large part of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also spoken in parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, another East African nation.

Some Additions To We All Love A Mystery

This was first published in 2007, but I've since revised it ever so slightly and I've added a "Word History." The photo below was added 1-28-22.

 Anna Anderson had a fair number of supporters during her lifetime. If I remember correctly, however, opinion polls over the years showed that the overwhelming percentage of the public did NOT believe she was the Tsar's daughter, and this was well before any Romanov remains were unearthed or any DNA testing was conducted. As I noted in the main story, she had some very wealthy supporters who were her outright benefactors, providing housing, clothing and financial assistance, and at times, a pretty high lifestyle.

By the early to mid 1990s, when DNA testing had shown that Anderson was not the Tsar's daughter, the remaining supporters were just devastated. There was disbelief in the test results, as well as suspicions that testing samples had been planted in some way by Anderson's Romanov opponents. That's understandable. Some people had been very committed to Anna Anderson's cause, and to have that cause totally disintegrate brought about a common human reaction, denial. I don't doubt for one minute the sincerity of the affection that many of her supporters had for her, but at times, our emotional attachment to a cause can smack our own self esteem, when that cause comes crashing down. Certainly I'd have to believe that was the case with many of Anderson's supporters. While they protested the test results, they had to feel that they had been deceived by Anderson and that kind of thing leads to people questioning their own judgment. When Richard Nixon was re-elected as president in 1972, he received tens of millions of votes. Just about a year and a half later, with the Watergate scandal on the front page of every newspaper, it was tough to find anyone who admitted to voting for him.

 Now, was Anna Anderson just a flat out fraud? The bottom line answer would have to be that she was. When she dropped the grenade in the munitions factory, and the one worker was killed, and she herself was badly wounded, she was given much psychiatric treatment, but when she was released from the hospital, the doctors declared that she was not "cured" of her emotional troubles. As I mentioned in the main article, thereafter, she was treated at various other times in her life for mental instability. So, what am I getting at?

I had an acquaintance who passed away a couple of years ago. I won't go into the details, but he "claimed" to be fairly well off financially, to have property in Beverly Hills, and to have worked at a particular job for many years. For those of us who were around him, we could neither prove nor disprove his story, or stories, if you will. When we make friends, we like to know something about those friends, and we like to feel some sort of trust with our friends. In this case, most of us did not believe the guy's story (most of us still liked him very much, although a few felt deceived and they were angry). The reasons are not really important, but my feelings were always that he started out telling a bit of an exaggeration about himself, and that the story eventually just got out of hand, and I guess you could say, that it took on a life of it's own. He had gone so far with the story, that he would have been humiliated to have to recant. I've always felt sorry for him, in that he wanted so much to be something that he wasn't. Now, all of us have exaggerated (or downplayed) something about ourselves, and if exaggerating were a crime, I suppose all of YOU.....okay, all of US would be doing time. Just like Anna Anderson's story, this guy's story just did not always make sense, nor did it fit with his life. So, did Anderson's story just get out of hand, or did she just plain take advantage of gullible folks who wanted to believe that at least one Romanov princess had escaped the Bolsheviks? Remember, as time passed, she didn't have to work, and she lived a very extravagant lifestyle for a time, with wealthy benefactors footing the bill. With that in mind, I want all of you to know that I'm really Ross Perot's long lost son.

This photo of Franziska Schanzkowska, who took the name Anna Anderson, is from Wikipedia and it is in the public domain. It is listed on Wikipedia as having been taken in Berlin in 1922 by an unknown photographer.

WORD HISTORY: 

Canister-This noun for a "cylindrical container, originally metal, but in modern times often of plastic," seems to go back to some Semitic language^ of the Middle East, as Arabic has "qanah" and Assyrian "qanu," both meaning "reed." Ancient Greek had "kanastron," which meant "reed basket," from Greek "kanna"="reed," plus the "tron" ending, which comes from Indo European "-trom," a suffix used to form words to indicate a device or implement. The Greek word was borrowed by Latin as "canistrum," which meant the broader "wicker basket." English borrowed the word, as "canister," from Latin circa 1500. It also came to be used for some artillery shells or other explosive devices, and further for containers for smoke causing agents and for tear gas.

 ^  The Semitic languages are a group of related languages "centered" in the Middle East and eastern Africa, but also spoken beyond those areas. The most common modern Semitic languages are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and Tigrinya, but in ancient times Semitic included Assyrian and Phoenician, with Phoenician being spoken in ancient times in the Middle East and in North Africa by the Carthaginians. 

Joan Rivers

The death of Joan Rivers leaves something of a void in the world of comedy and humor. Joan was certainly not everyone's cup of tea, especially anyone with the least bit of insecurity or humorlessness, as she played rough, including with her jokes about herself, but also often with jokes about other people sharing the "celebrity" status. The name of her book from a couple of years ago, "I Hate Everyone ... Starting With Me," sort of sums up her sarcastic, hard hitting view of humor, a type of humor which drew criticism from some who failed to garner an apology from Joan, or achieve a bow to "political correctness" from her. Her request for a "showbiz" funeral was just something you would have expected from her, and I'm so glad that is what she got ... a big send off, complete with an irreverent eulogy by Howard Stern and a prolonged standing ovation for her. The details of Stern's eulogy are still sketchy, but some reports say he said something to the effect, "I hope she's now chasing Johnnie Carson around with a baseball bat," in reference to the feud between the two stars, dating to the mid 1980s.

So I stand and applaud you Joan Rivers. You pushed the envelope for comedy with sarcasm and personal references, but never meant with hate ... ah, you didn't mean any of those things in hate, right?

WORD HISTORY:
Chutzpah-This Yiddish word, borrowed into American English in the late 1800s, goes back to Aramaic, an Afro-Asiatic language, from the Semitic branch, along with Arabic, Amharic, and Hebrew, for example. Aramaic "huspa," meant "to be disrespectfully unashamed, insolent." This gave Hebrew "khutspa," and the word was later taken up by Yiddish.^ While usually meant in a negative way, depending upon context, the American version can also be complimentary, meaning "daring, self confident."

^  Yiddish developed about 1000 A.D. among German Jews living in the Rhineland area from some High German dialects back then. It also used Hebrew, and, over time, spread throughout Europe's Jewish communities, incorporating some vocabulary from several Slavic languages/dialects in eastern Europe. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet, but it is classified as one of the Germanic languages, thus making it a close relative of English.

The German Question, Part Eighty-Five

"The Aftermath of the Great War & The Weimar Republic"/Part Two

"The Status Of Liechtenstein "

I have not dealt much with the small principality of Liechtenstein in this series as yet. In America, the name "Liechtenstein," often mispronounced or misspelled as "Lichtenstein," is probably best known for a polka tune that was quite common here since the late 1950s, but written by a German, Will Glahe, who was born in what was then the outskirts of Wuppertal, a city in the German state of "North Rhine Westphalia" (it later became part of the city).*

Liechtenstein, which is less then 62 square miles in size, is located between Austria to the east, and Switzerland to the west. Its population (modern) is about 35,000, much of it located within the confines of its capital, Vaduz. It is German-speaking.** It was part of the Old German Empire (the "Holy Roman Empire"), and was also associated with Austria, the then leading German state ruled by the Habsburg family, whose leaders were long elected as German emperors. In fact, Liechtenstein's prince had palaces in the then German capital of Vienna. When the Old German Empire was dissolved, under pressure from Napoleon, Liechtenstein gained a certain independence, although it was dependent upon Napoleon's sponsored "Confederation of the Rhine." When Napoleon was defeated, Liechtenstein became part of the German Confederation, which was also led by the Habsburgs. When this entity was dissolved in 1866, Liechtenstein gained independence, but continued its strong connection to Austria and its successor state, "Austria-Hungary." World War One brought hardship for the little neutral principality, as its association with Austria-Hungary (one of the "Central Powers) and its German-speaking population made the Allies view Liechtenstein as an enemy nation, regardless of its protests of neutrality. Economic restrictions by the Allies brought a serious shortage of all sorts of products, including food. Even before the war ended, Liechtenstein tried to break its ties to Austria, and move into a closer relationship with Switzerland, which it succeeded in doing. Since that time, Liechtenstein has remained a separate nation, although there has been a small German unity movement there ever since, which became more active during the time of Nazi rule in Germany. So this answers a part of "The German Question," as Liechtenstein is out as a part of Germany, although it remains German in language and custom.

* The "Liechtensteiner Polka" was a catchy tune and though the lyrics were in German, the song was found on many an album containing polkas, was heavily played on radio, and it was commonly played by Lawrence Welk on his long running television show. "Das ist die Liechtensteiner Polka mein Schatz, Polka mein Schatz, Polka mein Schatz..." I didn't end that line with a period, because that would be a......."polka dot." (Hey, no rolling on the floor laughing!)

** As is common in the German-speaking parts of Europe, besides standard German, Liechtensteiners speak a German dialect going back to one of the old Germanic tribes, the Alemanni. It is the same "general" dialect spoken in the German areas of Switzerland, Alsace, extreme western Austria, Swabia, which is the region around Stuttgart, and other areas of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. I use "general" dialect, because there are variations (sometimes substantially so) even within the German dialects, often even from town to town. Remember, these are dialects, not standard, and without standard "rules of grammar and pronunciation," each area is on its own. Regional pride and tradition, along with little societal pressure to change, keeps these dialects alive, although in certain areas in the north, but not all, where Low German provides the common denominator in the dialects, standard German has diminished the number of dialect speakers substantially during the last several decades.

WORD HISTORY:
Sack-(This is to complete the compound "haversack," from the previous article.) This word goes back to the Middle East and the Semitic languages and the root "sqq" (not a typo), which gave Hebrew and Egyptian "saq," with the meaning "sackcloth, sack made from cloth." This was borrowed by Greek (an Indo European language related to English further down the family tree) as "sakkos," which was then borrowed by Latin as "saccus." (Latin is also an Indo European language.) Old Germanic borrowed the word from Latin as "sakkiz," which then gave Old English "sacc," for "sack," and "saecc," meaning "sackcloth." "Sacc" later became "sak," and then eventually the modern spelling. The word is widespread in the other Germanic languages: Old High German had "sac," and modern German, like English, has "Sack," as does Low German; Dutch has "zak" (but it means both bag and pocket), Norwegian has "sekk," Swedish has "säck," Danish has "saek." I could not find a related word in Icelandic. The verb form, with meanings "to pillage" and "to dismiss from employment," was borrowed from French "sac," which was derived from Latin "saccare," which meant "to put pillaged items into a sack to be carried off." It then has the same roots as the English noun. The "discharged/dismissed" meaning seems to come from the notion of a discharged employee leaving the premises carrying his belongings and tools in a sack, and perhaps, at least originally, that "sack" was often provided by the employer, as the term developed as "give someone the sack." The verb form was borrowed into English in the 1500s.