Christian suggestion

[Amy Speed]

My mother's family is Norwegian-Lutheran, and jell-o salads are definitely
part of that culture. Woe to the odd family member who dislikes jell-o! No
one knows more recipes for jell-o than a Lutheran from the Midwest.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of A. Maberry
Sent: Monday, November 08, 1999 7:23 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Christian suggestion


On Mon, 8 Nov 1999, Lynne Murphy wrote:

> "A. Maberry" wrote:The case of Islam is exactly the same as that of
> Christianity. No one is
>
> > born a Muslim, only of parents who are Muslim. And, unlike the case of
> > Judaism, both "Muslim" and "Christian" imply absolutely no ethnic
> > identity.
> >
>
> An ex of mine was a Lutheran of German-Norwegian (Illinois-N. Dakota)
stock,
> who, whenever she saw a Jello salad would gesture boldly and exclaim
"Behold!
> The food of my people!"  This joke got started because of the ubiquitous
jello
> salads at Lutheran "covered dish" (i.e., potluck) suppers in that part of
the
> country.  So, perhaps one can be a little bit culturally Lutheran, if not
> ethnically so.

I am myself a mostly "German-Norwegian" and more or less of a Lutheran by
training (mostly less), but since I grew up in the Pacific Northwest I
missed out on virtually all of the "Lutheran culture". I associate jello
salads with the midwest generally not specifically Lutherans. I would
imagine Methodist picnics with plenty of "hot dishes and jello salads."
However I *have* heard Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup refered to
as "Lutheran binder" for cooking purposes.

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu
who has learned more about Lutheran
culture and Lutherans from Garrison
Keillor than he ever did in church.