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September 29th 2009 01:55
For the occasion of my son's 8th birthday, my mom ordered a cake from a Chinese (Hong Kong-style) bakery, which is something she's done for several years now. Chinese cakes are somewhat different from western cakes in that they're usually less sweet and--I think but am not entirely sure--made like chiffon cakes, with no butter. The crumb is not too dense, not too moist, and rather springy. So good!
My son's favourite Chinese cake is a cream-and-fruit-filled layer cake. It is simple and delicious, and certainly not as decadent as many western varieties. But when we opened the bakery box we were surprised by its contents:
We reached no consensus on the filling.
What is all that piled on top? Did Gordon Ramsey, in a fit of pique, dump a plate of sub-par noodles on top of my son's cake? I took a smidge of it with my fork. Hmm--soft but not gooey. Slightly sweet, with a familiar yet not readily identifiable flavour. After everyone tried their slices, most of us thought it was red bean (also known by the Japanese name azuki) mixed with something else, though none of us could pinpoint all of the flavours.
Poor kid! My son didn't finish his slice of cake, and many others ate around the filling. As for me, I'll eat almost anything, so I had not one but two servings. (*burp*) The flavour was fine if unexpected; only the aesthetics were lacking. Too bad the filling wasn't piped attractively on top of the cake, or simply spread between the layers. As it was, whenever I looked closely at the filling, I couldn't help thinking of ground meat or something that'd been pressed through a Play-Doh spaghetti-making sieve.
September 27th 2009 03:24
One morning I received a curious email from my husband while we were both at work. He asked me what word he could use instead of redact when speaking of terminating (i.e., firing, sacking, pink slipping) an employee. Hmm. I was surprised, and replied that redact is more or less synonymous with edit in the sense of 'to edit a piece of writing'. (Dictionary meaning: to prepare documents for publication.)
Husband's next message was even more surprising: The termination papers here always use the word redact and redaction, but I want to use another word in my airsoft [military roleplaying] game. (Heh, yes he makes good use of company time.)
It seemed that someone out there in corporate land thought redact an acceptable euphemism for terminate, which owing to a linguistic lapse led my husband to perceive redact as an another term for terminate in the sense of 'kill'.
After sorting things out with my husband, I did a quick Google search for redact euphemism. It turns out that redact has been a popular buzzword of late, used by governmental figures and the like to mean cover up or censor.
Despite the appalling instance of governmental 'redactions', I am actually more offended by the corporate use of redact. I can understand, in a slippery slope kind of way, how removing undesirable parts of a document can be part of the redaction process. But redaction, in the real sense, is somewhat neat and tidy; it's an act that's all about polishing something to make it presentable. A redacted paper is one thing, but it is quite another thing to redact a person. Or is it? You screwed up, and now the corporation wants to edit you out of the picture. Redacted. Done.
Aside: If youre interested in issues of language and corporate jargon, I recommend Death Sentences by Don Watson.
September 15th 2009 02:59
In the "than" versus "from" debate, I am firmly on the side of the established usage: "different from" is correct; one need only point to the long established use of "different from". Below are two examples from 19th-century English literature, Austen and Dickens respectively:
"'My style of writing is very different from yours.'" (Darcy to Miss Bingley)
"'But, your bringing-up was different from mine; mine was a real
thing, by George!'" (Bounderby to Harthouse)
But English, being an ever-evolving language, allows for new and accepted, if non-standard, forms all the time. I was once shocked to be corrected by an editor for writing "different from". In my defence, I pointed her to some authoritative texts on the matter, such as The Elements of Style.
Strunk & White say in The Elements of Style that "logic supports established usage". Indeed, compare the meanings of the words "than" and "from", and the correct usage is clear.* Which word is correct in the following example?
Lemons differ [from/than] oranges and figs.
According to Merriam-Webster, one of the uses of from is to "indicate an act or condition of...differentiation".
Lemons are different from oranges.
Figs are different from oranges.
On the other hand, than is used to make a "comparison expressive of inequality; used with comparative adjectives and comparative adverbs".
Lemons are tarter than oranges.
Figs are smaller than oranges.
Indeed, the prescriptive grammarian might only use "different than" in a sentence such as the following:
Figs are more different (from oranges) than lemons.
*I know that British English sometimes allows for "different to", which bemuses me. How did that come about?
I installed Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 (by publisher PopCap Games) a few days ago and have been playing it non-stop (that is, outside of time spent on important things like child-rearing and eating and sleeping--but just barely).
Meeting one of the bosses in Bookworm Adventures Vol. 2, the Jabberwock
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Mmmm, we love our crêpes in this house! We're fans of all sorts of flat cakes, as I've mentioned in this blog in previous posts. It's odd, then, that I've never, EVER made savoury crepes before. Dessert crêpes I've made aplenty, but I thought it high time I tried crêpes as a meal.
For our first-ever crêpes dinner, I made whole wheat crêpes and filled them with delicious sauteed mushrooms and rich Béchamel sauce. With a side of simple baked asparagus, dinner was a vegetarian delight
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Did you know that the original conception for Star Trek: The Next Generation's Counsellor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) was that she was "exotic" and had three breasts? (Science fiction alumna D. C. Fontana ixnayed that RIDICULOUS idea.) But it seems that the powers behind TNG nonetheless had enough to make Troi the token sex object--a scantily, or snugly, clad exotic alien babe.
Costumes on TNG are often signifiers for characters' personalities. Guinan is mystical and wise, so she wears flowing robes and huge strange hats. Wesley (pre-ensign) wears rainbow-striped shirts and two-toned pants that don't zip up all the way--because apparently that's how teenagers dress in the 24th century. Worf wears a Klingon sash. Picard sometimes wears a special jacket. If clothes make the person, what do Troi's clothes say about her
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One of the more time-consuming meals I made recently incorporates the beloved scallion pancake, a dim sum item served in many Chinese restaurants (in North America, anyway). Scallion pancakes are delicious in their own right as appetizers or for brunch, but I made them with a vegetarian stirfy and steamed rice.
Scallion pancakes are not fluffy and sweet like western pancakes; they're more like a flat bread, such as roti, chapati, or tortilla. They're normally served moderately salted, and perhaps with a dipping sauce. Because of how they're rolled, the pancakes are layered and puff up slightly when cooking
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I thought I'd take a break from strictly writing about grammar, and post about something else that is dear to my heart: word usage and common misuses of words and phrases. Here is a list of some of the ones I hear and read most often.
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily...
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Pescado asado, is a popular Cuban dish that incorporates baked white fish with some typically Caribbean flavours such as lime and spices. It would go well with Cuban beans (black beans) and rice, moros y cristianos.
Traditionally pescado asado should be a whole fish, but my husband has a 'thing' about not eating or even looking at an entire fish ("I don't want to eat something that's looking back at me"), so I have to use fillets if I want him to eat fish. I used Pacific cod fillets, and I think that Pacific sole or tilapia might work too
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Comments (2)
Comment by Irene
on Whole wheat crêpes with mushrooms and cheese
Grammar Matters
Cooking Monkey