Thursday, November 27, 2008

Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

I went to the grocery store the other day to do a little Thanksgiving feast shopping, and realized, standing in the produce aisle staring at my list, that I knew the Welsh word for leeks, knew why they're one of the national emblems of Wales, along with the daffodil, and could even remember part of the refrain of a Welsh-language song that mentions leeks, and yet had no idea what a leek actually looked like. 

This year, I am thankful for the modern world, where even totally useless people like me can survive. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

10 comments:

daine said...

Leek are meant to be tasted, and not seen.

So did you find them? What were you cooking with leeks? Were you still around when I made that leek and asparagus soup?

Good job on the Arrested Development quote; that scene is possibly in my top ten moments from the entire series.

Th. said...

.

I can't remember that scene, although I remember the line.... What was the context?

Petra said...

daine--

So many questions!

1. Yes; I asked my friend Two, who does have some practical skills, and he found them for me.

2. I was cooking an out-of-this world delicious squash soup. I'll send you the recipe if you want.

3. No! Can I have the recipe.

4. Not a question, but: me too!

Th.--

Numbers for you too.

1. The context is Lindsey, George Sr., Lucille, and (eventually) GOB all doing their chicken dances. Classic.

2. Did I mention to you that I spent the weekend in Tehachapi a while ago?

Connie said...

there's a pokemon named farfetch'd that always holds a leek in his hand. that's how i know.

Lizzie said...

On a related note, after much personal confusion i've finally learned the difference between parsnips and turnips, and i can even remember what they taste like (!). Now for identifying rutabagas...

We had a marvelous time at your parents' for Thanksgiving, btw; i'm so glad they invited us over.

emily said...

that's awesome. come to think of it, i don't know what leeks look like, either. but i do know what the bluth family chicken dance looks like. beautiful.

so now i am curious, why are leeks and daffodils welsh national emblems? although i am leek-illiterate, i happen to love daffodils and have mostly welsh ancestry. not that those things matter, but somehow they make me feel more justified in wanting to have that bizarre bit of knowledge.

Petra said...

Connie--

Remind me to tell you the story of the Pikachu song sometime.

Lizzie--

Glad you enjoyed it; wish I could have been there!

Skylark--

No one's really sure, actually: the most common story, though, is that in some battle against the English the Welsh wore leeks in their caps so they could distinguish friends from enemies (possibly advised to do so by St. David). The connection to daffodils seems to be that the words are similar in Welsh (daffodils are called "Peter's leek"), and that a daffodil looks like a young leek. Weird, right?

Th. said...

.

Oh yes. Now I remember. I asked Lady Steed if she could remember the line (during our recent drive back from Tehachapi) and she couldn't but it still made her bend over laughing. Good thing I was driving at the time.

So, what were you doing there?

Ginsberg said...

And red dragons. I'm one-sixteenth Welsh and I think a leek looks like a really big green onion.

Connie said...

i want to hear the pikachu song story today.