Category: ThThTh

How do you like them apples?

Fall has fallen here in the northern hemisphere, and in my neck of the woods, this means it’s apple-picking season.¹ Which seems like as good a reason as any to pick apples for this week’s Themed Things Thursday.

  1. Apple of my eye. An expression meaning one who is most dear to the speaker.

    2. cortland_apple.jpg

  2. The Big Apple. A nickname for New York City. One source identifies its origins from usage by African-American stablehands at a New Orleans racetrack in the 1920s. (Wikipedia says it was first used by touring jazz musicians in the 1930s.)
  3. Snow White. A fairytale in which a girl falls asleep after eating a poisoned apple.
  4. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. A saying suggesting that eating apples is good for the health. I found a bit on origins of the saying:

    From “Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings” by Gregory Y. Titelman (1996): “An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Eating fruit regularly keeps one healthy. First found as a Welsh folk proverb (1866)” ‘Eat an apple on going to bed,/ And you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.’ First attested in the United States in 1913…”

  5. Adam’s apple. A bump on the front of the neck, tending to me more prominent in adult males, from the “forward protrusion of the thyroid cartilage.” Likely nicknamed based on the Biblical story of Eve giving an apple to Adam.

    6. archibald_apple_tree.jpg

  6. Newton’s apple. A falling apple (which may or not have bonked him on the head) may or may not have contributed to Newton’s theory of universal gravitation.
  7. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. An expression meaning that the offspring will often turn out like the parent(s).
  8. Johnny Appleseed. An American folk hero famed for planting lots of apple trees.
  9. Apple Inc.² A company. Makes computers. One line of which is named after a type of apple, the macintosh. Has a logo shaped like an apple_rainbow.jpgapple_clear.jpg
    apple with a bite out of it. Has a variety of iProducts: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iCup…
  10. An apple for the teacher. An apple is known in the US as traditional gift to give to a teacher. (The fruit, not the computers. But I bet most teachers would appreciate getting an Apple.) Has (probably) led to apples showing up on greeting cards and coffee mugs as symbols of the teaching profession (along with rulers, blackboards and squid). (No wait, scratch that last one. I was just checking to see if you were still reading this.)

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¹ We live in an area with many apple orchards, and Phoebe even got to go apple picking with her daycare last week. I hope we’ll get to go together some time this year. Late October last year, we went to a nearby orchard that grows over 50 varieties of apples. Pick-your-own season was past, so our experience was less about apple picking than apple choosing. But it was still fun. And the apples were yummy.

² I read that Apple Inc. officially dropped “Computers” from its name earlier this year. I hadn’t even noticed.

apples_triangle.jpg

squawk

pirateparrot.jpgHere it is, the day after International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and I’ve still got pirates on the brain. But rather than bringing you a list of pirates for this week’s Themed Things Thursday, I’ll bring you a list of the frequent pirate’s companion: the parrot.

A Flock of Parrots

  1. Parrots are frequently to be seen on the shoulders of pirates¹, specifically of fictional pirates. Captain Flint was a pirate’s parrot in Treasure Island, the pirate novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. More recently, we’ve seen the pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
  2. Parrots, especially African Grey Parrots, are well known as birds who can imitate human speech.
  3. This is no doubt the source of the use of the word parrot as a verb (transitive), meaning repeat without really understanding. As in “They parroted my parrot jokes, but none of them laughed.”
  4. You can find a variety of parrot jokes out there. (These even a site with pirate and parrot jokes.) This is probably my favorite parrot joke.
  5. Polly want a cracker? The stereotypical parrot sentence, whether said to a parrot, or by a parrot. Possibly popularized in Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
  6. Poll or Polly has been a common parrot name for centuries, with an early documented use from 1611.
  7. Also in the nursery rhyme:

    Little Poll Parrot
    Sat in his garret
    Eating toast and tea;
    A little brown mouse
    Jumped into the house,
    And stole it all away.

  8. Then there’s the song “Polly,” by Nirvana

    Polly wants a cracker
    I think I should get off her first
    I think she wants some water
    To put out the blow torch

  9. Or Paulie (1998), a movie about a parrot.
  10. Parrots have been featured in various folktales from around the world, like 2 Buddhist folktales from India “The Brave Little Parrot.” (who puts out a forest fire²) and “The Steadfast Parrot” (who is faithful to a tree) and an
    Italian folktale (involving a prince who has himself turned into a parrot).
  11. Other moderately famous parrots include Waldo the Parrot, from Twin Peaks (who seems to have been present, and biting, the night of Laura Palmer’s death) and Parrot, the parrot with biting sarcasm from the Terry Pratchett novel Faust Eric
  12. Parrot Heads are the nickname given to fans of the musician Jimmy Buffett
  13. And to round things off, I bring you Python’s parrot. The ex-parrot. He is decidedly not pining for the fjords.

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¹ Or about the arms and head, especially of those posing as pirates.

² Kind of like a friend of mine did recently, except he used a plastic bag to put out the fire.

listless

Here it is Thursday, and that means I’m due for a list of Themed Things. But the thing is, I’m tired. It’s been a long week, with a couple more busy days ahead, and well, my brain is fried. So I suppose I could come up with a list of fried things. But I have to say that is not a theme I can envision myself making a list about. So instead, I’ll make a list of things I can’t envision myself making lists about.

  • bricks
  • doorknobs
  • mold
  • tissues
  • ethernet cables
  • plungers
  • eyebrows
  • curtains
  • gall bladders
  • pocket lint

If you have any suggestions for other lists I shouldn’t write, please let me know.

10 little piggy-pig-pigtail-people

As might be inferred from my last post, I am decidedly pro-pigtail. In celebration of pigtails, I bring you the following pigtail-themed list.

The 10 people on this list have one thing in common. Or two things, really. Pigtails. Whether it’s two braids, or two little pony tails, these folks know how to do the two-do with style.

  1. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy’s pigtails with their blue-ribbon bows are iconic, and a standard feature of Dorothy costumes, along with the blue gingham dress and ruby slippers. Many illustrations of the original book (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum), also show Dorothy in pigtails.

    2. dorothy.jpg dorothy_book.jpg

  2. Ronald Ann from Berke Breathed’s cartoon Outland. She started off with 3 pigtails, but her do evolved to the classic 2.

    3. outland_ronald_ann.jpg

  3. Laura of Little House on the Prairie. I’m familiar with the TV show Laura, as played by Melissa Gilbert. I can’t speak for her hair in the books on which the show was based. (I loved her braided pigtails when I was about 11, and would occasionally wear my hair that way.)

    4. laura_little_house.jpg pippi.jpg

  4. Pippi Longstockings. The super-strong Pippi, of the books and movies, has bright red pigtails that defy gravity.

    5. brady_cindy1.jpgcindy1.jpgcindy2.jpg

  5. Cindy from the Brady Bunch, in the early days. The youngest one in curls. Which were often in pigtails.

    6. nbsp;

    Then there are various girly-girl cartoon & animé characters wear pigtails, like…
    sailor_moon.gifbubbles.gif

  6. Bubbles, the Powerpuff Girl. The sweet girly-girl one, and
  7. Sailor Moon, who has really, really long blond pigtails.

    8. And lest you think that pigtails are just for toddlers and schoolgirls, I submit to you the following pigtail-sporting women:

  8. Jennifer Schwalbach Smith (aka Kevin Smith’s wife) wore pigtails with her black leather catsuit in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) (I actually found a picture of Kevin Smith in pigtails, which was not something I expected to find.)

    9. jennifer_smith1.jpg buffy_pigtails2.jpg

  9. Buffy, on occasion, also sported pigtails. Like in the episode “Fear Itself,” a bit which you can see on YouTube. (Okay, so Buffy’s dressed in a Little Red Riding Hood Halloween costume in this one, but other times she wears pigtails when not dressed as a little girl.)

    10. michelle_yeoh1.jpg

  10. Michelle Yeoh in Supercop/Jing cha gu shi III: Chao ji jing cha/ Police Story III: Supercop: I mentioned once before that my favorite scene in this movie is a fight scene where she’s wearing her hair in braided pigtails. Those braids go a-flyin’ as she kicks some serious ass.

throwing some tomatoes

tomato_pd.jpgIt shouldn’t come as much surprise that I have tomatoes on the brain. After getting 10 pounds of tomatoes from the CSA this week, on top of the several pounds I left from last week’s 10 pound haul, I have tomatoes in lots of places. I’ve been making lots of things with tomatoes: tomato salad with mozzarella and basil, tomato sandwiches, roasted tomatoes with garlic…It seems only fitting that I should also make me a tomato list. So, this week’s Themed Things Thursday is all about tomatoes.

  1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg. A novel featuring a restaurant that serves fried green tomatoes. (I expect they served other things, too. But the title doesn’t include the full menu.)
  2. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) A movie based on the Fannie Flagg novel.
  3. The Tomato Collection. An album by Nina Simone. It actually seems to have nothing to do with tomatoes beyond the title, but I love Nina.
  4. The campfire song “Lord Jim”

    I know an old bloke and his name is Lord Jim,
    And he had a wife who threw tomatoes at him,
    Now tomatoes are juicy, don’t injure the skin,
    But these ones they did, they was inside a tin.

  5. “Let’s call the whole thing off.” The song written by George and Ira Gershwin. Sometimes known as “the tomato song,” due to this bit:

    You like potato and I like potahto,
    You like tomato and I like tomahto;
    Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
    Let’s call the whole thing off!

    Tomato, tomahto…or, as the Wikipedia tomato entry has, with somewhat dubious IPA:¹

    You like /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and I like /təˈmɑːtəʊ/

  6. Don’t like tomatoes? Perhaps this website is for you: tomatoes are evil. You can purchase anti-tomato propaganda and play anti-tomato games.
  7. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978). The cult classic movie. A comedy sci-fi horror thriller romance. Oh, wait. Probably not the romance. Spawned (or sowed?) several tomato–based sequels, including one called Killer Tomatoes Eat France!² The second movie, or the first sequel, starred, of all people, George Clooney.
  8. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. (1990) A short-lived cartoon TV show featuring the voice of John Astin. (John Astin was also in all 3 movie sequels.)
  9. I think the best way to end this list is to give you this: the theme song to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

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¹ I’d be inclined to use square bracket here, rather than slanty ones, for a start, as the slanty ones suggest a phonemic (rather than narrow phonetic) transcription., and the 2 variants of /o/ (əʊ and oʊ) are not phonemic. At the same time, the onset of that last syllabe is transcribed with a t, which seems unlikely in American English. I’d go for a flap. And I produce strong aspiration on the first /t/.
You know, you say /təˈmeɪtoʊ/, I say [tʰəˈmeɪɾəʊ].

²By the way, that exclamation point is part of the title. As someone who rations out my exclamation points, I feel compelled to insert this disclaimer.

pigeon post

On our recent trip, we saw many exciting things in France and Germany: monuments, museums, landscapes, rivers, you name it. For Phoebe, however, the highlight of the trip was getting to see so many pigeons. She saw pigeons all over the place! (See her chase a pigeon in the short, short movie I posted earlier this week.)

Loved by some, hated by many, pigeons are a ubiquitous in cities the world all over. Some folks have been known to call them “rats with wings,” while others happily share their breadcrumbs with them. After its trip away, Themed Things Thursday flies home this week with a list of pigeons.

  • Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, by Mo Willems. A picturebook about a mischievous pigeon who would like to drive a bus. (There’s a sequel, too, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, in which the pigeon, and I hope I’m not giving too much away here, finds a hot dog.)
  • Wringer, by Jerry Spinelli. This Newbury Honor book is about a forbidden boy-pigeon friendship in a town that hosts an annual pigeon shoot.

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  • Ewan McGregor’s character in Little Voice (1998) kept pigeons as pets.
  • Valiant (2005) was a movie about a heroic World War II homing pigeon (voiced by Ewan McGregor…am I sensing a pattern here?).
  • Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, by Tom Lehrer. A song:

    When they see us coming,
    the birdies all try and hide
    but they still go for peanuts
    when coated with cyanide

  • Rapper Pigeon John is not really a pigeon, at least as far as I know.
  • Some may remember Sesame Street’s Bert dancing a pigeon-like dance to “doin’ the pigeon,” a clip of which is available on YouTube. (You can also see actual pigeons dancing, if you want to compare.)
  • There was an 80’s kids’ TV show called Pigeon Street. (The intro is also up on YouTube.)

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  • In spite of their bad reputation as a species, certain pigeons have received an especially elevated status for birds. Namely, bird of peace. In this context, the pigeon is referred to as a dove. A dove being a white pigeon.
  • Doves are featured in various myths and religious tales, such as the well-known story of Noah’s Ark. Land was found with the help of a dove, who flew back to the ark with an olive branch.
  • There is also a flock of pigeon-oriented idioms and terms such as:
    pigeon hole, stool pigeon, pigeon-toed, pigeon-chested, setting the cat among the pigeons, and pigeon blood ruby.
  • Brian Pigeon: There is even a blog out there written by a London pigeon. Check it out for a pigeon’s eye view of the world.

pigeons_row.jpg
Pigeons at Beaubourg.

bats in the belfry

We borrowed Phoebe’s air conditioner today, to bring downstairs for a bit, and when John removed it from the window, he was surprised to see that a bat was curled up on the windowsill. It had apparently set up house in the cave formed under the air conditioner. (It can’t have lived there long, though, since the air conditioner was out of the window when the house got painted about 6 weeks ago.) Anyhow, the bat huddled there shivering for several minutes before it got up and flew away. It was terribly cute. But, seeing as they can carry rabies, not terribly cuddly-looking.

So, inspired by the little bat we had as a pet without knowing it, I bring you a list of bats for this week’s Themed Things Thursday. This list will be short, and light on the links. Because I only have a couple of minutes before people come over for dinner.

  1. Batman. The superhero. Comics, TV show, movies. Dresses up in a bat-like costume. Has a bat cave. And a bat signal.
  2. Batboy. Half boy, half bat. A regular of Weekly World News.
  3. Vampires. In some tales about them, they can turn into bats.
  4. Bat out of hell. An expression meaning very fast, usually when someone is leaving somewhere. As in “I ran out of there like a bat out of hell.” Also an album by Meat Loaf.
  5. batty. An expression meaning crazy. (A bit milder than the related term batshit. As in “they are batshit insane.”) As in going batty. As in “I am going batty.” As in “I am going batty, because we leave for the trip in less than 48 hours. And have lots to do. Planning. Packing. Printing. People coming over for dinner. I’m sleep deprived, and have had to give up on the damn abstract that is the source of my sleep deprivation.”

That’s all I got. I bet there are more bats. Anyone else have any?

black is the new black

While other colors may go in and out of fashion, black clothing never goes out of style. This Themed Thing Thursday is decked out in black from top to bottom.

This list is wearing black

  • Macy’s employees may know a thing or two about fashion, but not all of them appreciate the new company policy that store employees must dress in black.
  • “Dressed in Black,” Depeche Mode

    Shes dressed in black again
    And I’m falling down again
    Down to the floor again
    I’m begging for more again
    But oh what can you do
    When shes dressed in black

  • LBD: Little Black Dress: A black article of clothing so well-known, it has it’s own acronym. The concept of the little black dress is said to date back to the 1920s, with a design by Coco Chanel.
  • Men in Black (1997): a movie about a secret agency that deals with extra-terrestrials on Earth, and in which agents (who are sometimes actually women) wear black suits.
  • The Man in Black: A song by Johnny Cash, and also one of his nicknames due to his trademark wearing of black:

    I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
    Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
    I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
    But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

  • The Man in Black from The Princess Bride. Princess Buttercup and her kidnappers (Vizzini and Fezzik) are pursued by a mysterious man dressed all in blask, including a black mask.
  • Black is frequently the color of choice for those who wish to wear a mask to disguise themselves: eg. Black Mask with Jet Li, Zorro‘s mask, or the Lone Ranger‘s.
  • black hat. In old Westerns, the bad guys could often be identified by the black hats they wore. (Whereas the good guys tended to wear white hats.) The term black hat has been co-opted by those in computing, as a reflection of “bad guy” attitudes about compromising the security of computer systems.
  • In many cultures, especially European cultures, wearing black is associated with mourning. It is considered the color to wear for funerals. (Have you ever noticed that in movies and TV shows, funeral attendees almost exclusively wear black? But at real funerals I’ve been to, people wear a wider range of colors, though still somber ones.) Traditional widow‘s garb is black, and women in mourning were expected to wear black for an entire year after the death of a husband or relative in British (and American) upper-crust societies. (In Gone With the Wind, it was considered scandalous when recently widowed Scarlett wants to wear colorful clothing.)

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  • Depictions of witches often show the witch dressed in black, especially the signature black pointy hat made famous by the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz, and vampires are also frequently depicted dressed in black, especially in a black cape. The Grim Reaper, a personification of death, wears a black cloak.
  • Goth subculture: black is the most commonly worn color by those who consider themselves goth. Black is often worn in other subcultures, such as punk.
  • Ninjas are often depicted wearing all black, likely because of it’s shadowy quality. I’m not sure the same could be said for Catholic priests and nuns, whose formal garb is also often black.
  • black belts: both the item of black cloth worn around the waist that signifies an expert rank in martial arts, or the person who sports that belt.
  • Tuxedos are traditionally made of black cloth, and are often accompanied by a black bow tie, after which the term black tie, an event where formal dress is expected, is named.

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    berry me deep

    jamberry.jpgOur blueberry-picking excursion of the weekend has me thinking about berries. Mmmmmm, berries.

    I love berries. And so do lots of other people. Berries show up in muffins, pies and other baked goods. Also in lots of books and folktales, and few songs. Plus a few other places you wouldn’t expect to find berries. Which is how berries ended up in my list of themed things.

  • Jamberry, by Bruce Degen
    A book of a bear, a boy, and many, many berries. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. And silly rhymes.

    Quickberry, quackberry
    Pick me a blackberrry

  • Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey
    A picturebook of berry-picking and bears, and mistaken identity.
  • Blueberry. The name of my stuffed bear I got from my mother for my fourth birthday. I still have him.
  • Violet, the gum-chewer of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the book by Roald Dahl, and the movies based on it) turns into a giant blueberry.

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  • Firefly & Buffy. Maybe Joss Whedon has a thing for strawberries. In Firefly, strawberries are a luxury item and valued commodity. A box of strawberries is what Book uses to convince Kaylee to take him on as a passenger in the pilot episode. In the Buffy Season 6 episode “Wrecked,” the creepy Rack tells Willow “you taste like strawberries.” (I also feel like there was a scene in the bronze at some point where some random dancing person gets briefly turned into a giant strawberry. Am I imagining this?)

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  • Strawberry Shortcake. The doll. The cartoons. The empire. I still remember the commercials for the doll from when I was little. I can still hear the song, with it’s mockable swellness:

    Strawberry Shortcake
    My she’s looking swell!
    Cute little doll
    With a strawberry smell.

  • The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear, by Don Wood Another picture book. About a mouse. And a strawberry. Also some mention of a bear.
  • The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher, by Molly Bang. I don’t actually know this berry-oriented book, though it won a Caldecott Honor medal. I liked the author’s story of struggling to get it published.
  • The Strawberry Legend. A Cherokee Legend where a woman forgets her anger and remembers her love as she eats some berries. (There’s at least one book version, too.)
  • The Blackberry Bush, a folktale in the book Stories to Tell to Children by Sara Cone Bryant.
  • Blackberry . One of the rabbits from Watership Down, by Douglas Adams.
  • BlackBerry. An electronic device. John had one for a couple of years. He would sometimes throw it when he got email because it would irritate him so much with its onslaught of interruptions.
  • Blowing a raspberry. Okay, it has nothing to do with berries. It’s when you make a sort of continous spitting noise by sticking your tongue between your lips and blowing, or by blowing through loosely closed lips. I have no idea why it’s called a raspberry.
  • Knott’s Berry Farm. Not actually a farm, and not so much berry-ish. It’s a large amusement park. But the founder did sell berries.
  • Frankenberry. A cereal. Berry-flavored. Also a cartoon character from the cereal box and commercials. Has a bit of a cult following. (There also seem to be some other meanings to Frankenberry, as seen on Urban Dictionary, but they seem pretty lame to me.)
  • Finally, here are a few berry songs that I picked for you:
    • Raspberry Beret, Prince (Okay, not really about raspberries)
    • Blueberry Hill, Louis Armstrong (Not really about blueberries)
    • Strawberry Fields Forever, the Beatles (…nothing is real…)

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