Words, Ideas, and Ketchup

[Doc]

OK, I'm not drunk or hungover; I had an epiphany about words last night and I just had to share. It all started with an innocent comment someone I know made about
"ketchup."


A "word" is just a lens in which we capture the image of concepts and ideas in order to
illuminate them to others, or store them in text and in sound for the future. Words
are dynamic, elastic snapshots (to one degree or another). We can "iris in" and "iris out"
on a word, or a trade name, any nominative, any action word, any descriptive or connective word, to refine our meaning and make crisp the picture in our minds that we
intend to share with others.

I have a lot more to say about this. A lot more.

[iameye]

Oct 25, 2009 7:20:25 GMT -5 Doc said:

OK, I'm not drunk or hungover; I had an epiphany about words last night and I just had to share. It all started with an innocent comment someone I know made about
"ketchup."


A "word" is just a lens in which we capture the image of concepts and ideas in order to
illuminate them to others, or store them in text and in sound for the future. Words
are dynamic, elastic snapshots (to one degree or another). We can "iris in" and "iris out"
on a word, or a trade name, any nominative, any action word, any descriptive or connective word, to refine our meaning and make crisp the picture in our minds that we
intend to share with others.

I have a lot more to say about this. A lot more.

Cool. Can't wait!

[Doc]

It all stems from te night that my good friend, and Colleague, I shall call him Greg
Packard*, said to me, in mocking tones about his mother (whom he did love), he said,
"My mother was no kind of cook. She knew nothing about proper food prepartion, God rest her soul. Do you know what she once said to me, she said, "My favorite sauce----is


(now wait for it)

..."My favorite sauce is....."

You know what's coming.

..."My favorite sauce...is......KETCHUP!"


And she covered a perfectly delicious breast of chicken--in KETCHUP!

My friend was so appalled. I was too. She should have used Heinz Barbecue Sauce! But that's another day...

And Greg said, "Ketchup ISN'T a sauce!"

I thought about it a while, but in a way, he was wrong. Technically, by definition, ketchup is, and always HAS been, a sauce.

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090831125103AAlHxs3

www.answers.com/topic/sauce

Where the hell did ketchup, or catsup, come from?

www.diffen.com/difference/Catsup_vs_Ketchup

www.thenibble.com/reviews/MAIN/condiments/ketchup/ketchup-roundup.asp

www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART/cliff/ketchup.html

OK, it was Chinese or Malaysian sour fish sauce, runny, and it came to Europe 500 years ago, and gradually morphed into the product it is today, by stages, and became more or less standardized as a commercial product of great popularity.

So, when is it NOT a sauce?

[Doc]

My conclusion, is that the word "sauce" has the scope of applying to "ketchup" (however it is spelled).

But to my friend, Greg Packard*, it does not! He rejects the idea out of hand.

I found a couple of possible reasons on the net. First of all, the French chefs, for example, have some traditions in their culinary arts. They make sauces from scratch in the kitchen. For over 300 years, they have utilized four, and later five, distinct basic sauce preparations, from which all other sauces are made. They are the base sauces, the mother sauces, sauce grandes.

The French mother sauces were originally four base sauces set forth by Antonin Careme in the 19th century. Careme’s four original mother sauces were Sauce Tomat, Bechamel, Veloute and Espagnole. Then in the 20th century, Chef Auguste Escoffier added the fifth and final mother sauce, hollandaise, with its derivatives covering almost all forms of classical emulsion sauces including mayonnaise.

from:

freeculinaryschool.com/the-five-french-mother-sauces-the-mother-of-all-resources/

and further:

whatscookingamerica.net/History/SauceHistory.htm

So, for these experts, and for persons like my friend Greg who has higher aesthetics than other people, perhaps, contemporary commercial Ketchup is a food product in low regard!

The other idea is that, not only does Ketchup fail to merit inclusion as a Sauce Tomat, but it fails in that it comes from a bottle! It's a mere condiment!

Well, and truth is, ketchup fails as a sauce for my friend also because it has an overwhelming pungency and sweetness that, rather than enhancing the dish it is served on, it obliterates whatever good flavor the dish has. It's vulgar, lacking in subtlety, and pedestrian.

A true sauce elevates a dish by it's nuance; a condiment grabs your taste buds like a Saturday Night hooker on crack. His words, not mine.

He's a person of highbrow tastes.

So, the person we are effects the way we choose our words. (Not too mention the intonation, but that's another story.) Our personal vocabulary is shaped and molded
by our beliefs and prejudices.

*Greg Packard, not his real name.

[Jai Guru Deva]

I was looking at Alan Cooper's Homonym List.
www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

In the P's it had this:

pall to become wearisome

Paul barefoot Beatle ;D

pawl locks a ratchet

[Jai Guru Deva]

More fun with words... I was looking in the dictinary and found this word:

TARADIDDLE ;D
taradiddle(tar·a·did·dle)

Syllabification: /ˈtarəˌdidl, /
(also tarradiddle)

noun
informal , chiefly British
a petty lie. pretentious nonsense.

Origin: late 18th century: perhaps related to diddle

oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1297096#m_en_us1297096