4.1415927 or Pi Day Plus One

So we shared some of The Pie with the girls for dessert tonight (they were at their dad's last week), and a) they pronounced it The Best Pie Ever (can't really argue with that as it's always been the favorite of all the pies my mom makes, and b) they wanted to know why it's called "Chess Pie" (the chocolate part was self-apparent).

Turns out no one really knows why it's called Chess Pie. There are theories, including the possibility that it's a corruption of Cheese Pie, and that in the South, whence comest this culinary delight, pies used to be stored in a piece of furniture called a "pie safe":




But my favorite theory (which, as a native Southern speaker, makes total sense) is that the name derived from saying it was "just pie" ---> "jes' pie" in the vernacular, and that became chess pie.

Anyway, I also found (whilst searching for the why) this old recipe from Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery

To make very good chee[secakes without] cheese curd
Take a quart of cream, & when it boyles take 14 eggs; If they be very yallow take out 2 or 3 of the youlks; put them into [the] cream when it boyles & keep it with continuall stirring till it be thick like curd. [Then] put into it sugar & currans, of each halfe a pound; ye currans must first be plumpt in faire water; then take a pound of butter & put into the curd a quarter of [that] butter; [then] take a quart of fine flowre, & put [the] resto of [the] butter to it in little bits, with 4 or 5 spoonsfulls of faire water, make [the] paste of it & when it is well mingled beat it on a table & soe roule it out.. Then put [the] curd into [the] paste, first putting therein 2 nutmeggs slyced, a little salt, & a little rosewater; [the] eggs must be well beaten before you put them in; & for [your] paste you may make them up into what fashion you please..."

Pretty cool ,eh?

I Don't Know Why People Think Foreign Languages Are So Hard...

(found over at Lockwood's place)

Linguistic Saturday Post

Ever wonder the etymology of "okay"?

From Dictionary.com:

Word History: OK [okay] is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans. That same year, an editorial referring to the receipt of a pin with the slogan O.K. had this comment: "frightful letters ... significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election, 'all correct' .... Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions ... to make all things O.K."

Doesn't your day feel more complete? I know mine does.

Literally Speaking

I swear, you teach them kids to think, and then they go and do it!

The sign on Lot 38 near the University Center reads “This Lot Will Become Faculty/Staff Only On July 7, 2008,” so microbiology senior Parinati Kharel parked there July 8 instead. She returned from class to find a $20 ticket underneath her windshield wiper. “It said ‘only on July 7’,” she said.

Bless her literal-minded heart. Read the rest here.

Praise Pedantry!

Amen. That's all I have to say to this.

Okay, I will say more.

I know that English is a living language, and therefore constantly changing. That's fine, as long as the change makes sense. Confusing "rein" and "reign"? Not so sensical.

Of course, my mom is a retired English teacher, so what do I know?