Hamburgers and ketchup

[Douglas Bigham]

On Hamburgers/Burgers:
It was ALWAYS hamburgers for me (and always with ketchup, if nothing else)here in Southern IL.  Then I got to college and ran into "burgers" and was all "what the heck?".  Then I dropped (eating) meat and "burgers" became the only acceptable form.  I know there's no "ham" in "hamburgers" but "tofu HAMburger" just sounds odd.

On Ketchup/Catsup:
Coincidentally, grandma told me ("awww" here) that "catsup", pronounced shallowly, was from grinding up errant cats and making soup from them.  I've only eaten 57HV since.   Either way, ketchup and catsup go on EVERYTHING.  French-fries, hamburgers, hot-dogs, pizza, onion rings, lima beans, bread (ketchup sandwich, anyone?), and particularly Dairy Queen sundaes.  My friend's stepmother once refered to ketchup as "an insult to any food" to which I responded by coating her (locally) famous cheesecake with it.

-dsb
Douglas S. Bigham
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale