OH-NW-HERITAGE-L Archives: October 2007
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- [OH-NW-HERITAGE] Black Swamp Heritage Articles e duda tsunogisdi © Bill Oliver,,7 October 2007 Vol 6 Issue: #37 ISBN: 1542-9474,,Good Evening fr om the Black Swamp of NWoHIo,,,"Expressions" ,,We received a card from one of our daughters [we ll, daughter-in-law actually, technically ] the ot her day and it warmed the cockles of our hearts. Now that is an expression that I have not heard nor used in a long time. It was one of my Dad's favorite., ,According to Michael Quinion, this expression induc es a glow of pleasure, sympathy, affection, or som e other grand emotion. The heart being the seat of em otions it should not surprise anyone that the expression should be thus connected. However, this does not i n the least explain what a cockle is.,,I remember Grandma Lester, in her beautifully clear voice, used to sing a song about bivalve mollusc which was a staple of British cuisine – "... Sweet Molly Malone , once wheeled her wheelbarrow thorough Dublin's fai r city, crying ‘cockles and mussels, alive, aliv e oh!'" Well they do rather resemble heart-shaped sh ells – ribbed shells. Zoologically speaking they ar e named Cardium.,,Speaking of "Sweet Molly Malon e" and her cockles and mussels I'm reninded that the re are also cockles and cawl, laver bread and Bara Bri th. These are foods from Wales. I sampled these wh en in England back in the earlier mid-nineteen fifties b ut I can't honestly remember much about their taste. Also, I must admit that I had to look up description s of them.,,I'm told that with their imaginative ways of preparation, Welsh cuisine is globally popula r today. Cockles and cawl, laver bread and Bara Bri th — delectable dishes traditionally associated with t he nation. Though the Welsh dishes might be popular t oday I admit to not being one of the most discerning of epicureans. Like my Father, I am a meat and potatoe s kind of eater [or fish and chips type]. Still t hat is how all this was developed – what was available locally.,,The Welsh owe much of their cuisine to their ancient Celtic traditions. Generally it is a cui sine based on what is available on its farms: meat, cheese, pancakes, Bara Brith and cawl are some of th reir more popular foods. Endowed with a splendid coast line, they have little but an abundant variety of fres h water and sea foods such as cockles, lobster., ,Welsh beef and succulent lamb figure largely in meat preparations, and the evergreen nation also boasts a g reat variety of vegetables — including the leek. Ch eeses are aplenty with more than a hundred varieties. Originally Welsh cheese came from the sheep and goats k eeping areas.,,Bakestone cooking is a Welsh tradit ion, turning out scones, pancakes and breads. Bei ng a practical people when they couldn't afford ovens the placed an iron pot over the bakestone's hot, fla t surface to create makeshift ovens.,,In case you are wondering what cawl is – it is soup made from meat and seasonal vegetables and herbs that are all simmered together in a large pot. Laver breat is simply edible seaweed. It is used much like grits in our south – as part of the traditional Welsh breakfast. Crempog is the Welsh equivalent of pancakes or crêpes — but made with buttermilk. These are thicker than our panc akes and served hot and buttered. Spread with meat or fish fillings they make a savoury sandwich.,,Bara Brith is a kind of speckled bread, while the famed Wel sh Rarebit is a cheese and bread grilled toast.,,I only bring the Welsh foods up because we recently viewe d one of the Cadfael PBS episodes and my mind got going .,,Getting off this side track and back to the mai n theme of expressions. My Da' [Father] was a w ordsmith. His skill at scrabble was legendary and so back to cockles.,,Now it might have been that spir al ribbing of the ventricles of the heart that reminded surgeons of the two valves of the cockle. Surely, i t is the shape of the cockleshell. Yet, on the othe r hand in medieval Latin, the ventricles of the heart were called cochleae cordis where cor is an inflected fo rm of the word heart.,,It may be that the shape an d spiral ribbing of the ventricles of the heart reminde d surgeons of the two valves of the cockle. However , cochlea in Latin is the word for a snail and it's also the name given to the spiral cavity of the inner ea r, thus, it is doubtful that this is the origin of "cockles of the heart".,,Maybe it is just that warm satisfactory sensation of a cup of coffee or tea w arming you as it slides down to your stomach.,,Wel l, that doesn't end it. I have found another mean ing of "cockle" – as the chamber of a kiln. For sure though when something "warms the cockles of our heart," it is a reference to something pleasant that makes our heart beat faster and makes us feel good – "warm and fuzzy.",,Another expression I have h eard Dad use is "going to pot". When I visited Tu rkey, courtesy of my Uncle Sam, I learned that it wa s customary to bury folks in pots. Also, it was cus tomary to bury several folks in the same pot. Not bel ieving that that was the origin of "going to pot" I remember Grandma Lester cutting meat and vegetables into chunks and tossing them into her stew "pot". So from the standpoint that remnants of once substantial th ings were destined to "go to pot" seems a right corr ect metaphor.,,Looking around the little grey cell s, stew [boiled veggies and meats] must have a loc al version in almost every culture. Take Hungarian go ulash and Scottish "hotch potch" as examples. Oh , Oh, yes, hotch potch did give rise to "hodgepo dge" meaing "jumbled mixture". And, while on the subject – "in a stew" [slow boil with anger ] and "stew in your own juice" [ignore, leave alone] come to mind also.,,Another, "jeepers creepers", "sure as shootin'", "goldurned " real word is "criminy", as in "for criminy s akes". However, Grandma Oliver didn't approve o f this substitute for "Christ". We'd try to say it wasn't the same thing as ‘cussin'‘ but she n ever bought it and would admonish us quite severely for using it. We'd try other euphemisms, such as ‘g oldurn', but they didn't usually work either. M aybe out emotional expression [the way we said it] g ave us away and thus we really couldn't fool anyone. Maybe that is why "for Pete's sake" just didn' t fool her one bit. "Criminy" has been around at least since Europeans invaded this continent which gives it some,,More recent in our vocabulary than "crim iny" is "sheesh", within my lifetime even. A "fib" is a "little" lie as opposed to "whopper s". Of course not the hamburger chain's main menu choice, but big just the same. "Fib" is a whim sical "nonsense" word for "fible-fable" which gi ves rise to "jingle-jangle" and/or "okey-dokey" . "Fible" somehow got shortened and we now just u se "fib". By the way, Grandma Oliver never tole rated "fibs" either. A fib was just as bad as a w hopper.,,Did you use a "fib" or a "whopper " to describe your thoughts about "Beowulf" when y ou had to read it in school English class.,,One mo re parting shot ...,,"Hey" some one shouts a greeting, and the reply comes back, "straw's cheaper". Do they use "straw" on a "hay" ri de? Well, to my reckonin', hay was the dried gr ass and alfalfa collected to feed horses and cattle. S traw on the other hand was the stalks of wheat and the l ike, left over after harvesting the grains and was use d for livestock "bedding".,,We won't get int o "straw boss" other than to say that like him/her o r not it is not the "big boss".,,e-la-Di-e-das -Di ha-WI NV-WA-do-hi-ya NV-WA-to-hi-ya-da.,(May y ou walk in peace and harmony),,Wado,,,,Bil l,-=-,1244 PostScript:,,"Myths are univers al and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives ..." Alexander McCall Smith, Dream Angus, ,Archived articles: http://archiver.rootsweb.c om/th/index?list=oh-nw-heritage
- [OH-NW-HERITAGE] Black Swamp Heritage Articles e duda tsunogisdi © Bill Oliver,,7 October 2007 Vol 6 Issue: #37