slew?

[sagehen]

>I'd say mashed potatoes would more properly belong to a passel.
>
>--Charlie
>_____________________________________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:31:02 -0400
>>From: Hillary Brown <hillaryhazelbrown at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject: slew?
>>>
>>>From a dining blurb in the New Yorker:
>>
>>"Montauk bluefish, with Trapani truffle salt, for instance, is
>>accompanied by a slew of woodsy mushrooms and mashed potatoes that
>>possesses a surprising depth of flavor."
>>
>>Can mashed potatoes be part of a slew?
>>
>>hb
 ~~~~~~~~~~
I think the above can reasonably be read as  (item) slew of wild mushrooms
and (item) mashed potato[es] that possesses &c.

"Slew" certainly means a goodly amount of countable things to me, but so
does "passel."  For something as uncountable as mashed potatoes, a "heap",
"mess" or "dollop" or  sthg sim would be needed.

AM
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