Huh?

[George Thompson]

I thank you all for explicating this.
I still think that this was a weird sentence.  That I don't know something
doesn't mean that it isn't common knowledge to everyone else, but in this
case, I doubt that I alone of NYTimes readers was baffled.
How do you eat foxtail seeds while running 150 miles across a desert?
 Whole?  Popped?  Perhaps ground, mixed with the lard and molded around a
stick, like a popsicle?  That might be most convenient, eating while
running.

Anyway -- thank you, and go easy on the lard & foxtails tomorrow.

GAT


On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 11:19 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> And, as we in the South know, anything goes better with lard.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 11:01 AM
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Nov 21, 2012, at 10:46 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>
> > From an article in the sports pages of today's (Wednesday's) NYTimes,
> about
> > a fat guy who has participated in and finished several very long distance
> > and multi-day endurance races, including a 150 mile race over the Sahara
> > desert.
> >
> > "While on the trail in the Sahara, Pitkanen subsisted on a diet of lard
> and
> > foxtail."
> >
> > If "foxtail" means what I suppose it means, then this raises the question
> > -- begs the question, in fact -- who ate the rest of the fox?  If it
> > doesn't, then what the hell does it mean?
>
> See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol1uRXIWILg
>
> "Although this edible plant is annoying and stubborn, it actually provides
> food in other country [sic] and can be on your next menu."
>
> Foxtail and lard: it's what's on the menu!
>
> LH
> >
> > I refer this to our culinary savant, VS.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > --
> > George A. Thompson
> > Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> > Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org