US'ns treat fruitcake as a running joke. There is at least one comedian who has a gag about there being only one fruitcake in existence; it keeps getting sent from person to person as a Christmas present. Considering its ubiquity I would have to believe that there is a time machine involved, too.
It's more fruit than cake and if you ask them the nice folks will send you the directions for inserting brandy into the cake. (At least they used to, I have the instructions so haven't asked lately.) After the treatment it should be left awhile, so if your taste runs that way, order early, insert brandy and let it soak in for a week or two. How could I resist a fruitcake made by a company that has two men named McNutt as officers? One a year is enough, though, so resist any temptation to forward unwanted fruitcakes. Thank you very much!
I had to look up "absinthe" ~ how intriguing that Atomica claims it is "now prohibited in many countries because of its toxicity". Do folks really drink the stuff? It sounds horrid.
I liked the word "pinnatifid", used to describe the feather-like structure of the "silvery silky leaves and numerous nodding flower heads" of the amarinthus plant. Of course, "pinnatifid" was helpfully defined by atomica as "having a pinnate structure". As an aside, what's the term for 'using a word or root thereof in its own definition'? Seems to me like cheating and I find it annoying, unless accompanied by a subdefinition. Is "pinnate" a common word? I can't recall having heard it before, but it seems a lovely, useful little thing.
Well i *did LIU, acksherly, which is why i added the "feather-like" qualifier to the definition I quoted, lest anyone *else not know the word.
What I was trying to ask in my own inimatatiblyŠ* fumbling way wasn't "what does 'pinnate' mean" but rather "does everyone on the planet know this word except for me?".
But thanks for the link an' the purty pitchers
*wasn't that the word that of troy coined, which hyla commented on?
ENTRY: pet- DEFINITION: Also pet- (oldest form *pet1-). To rush, fly. Variant *pte1-, contracted to *pt-. Derivatives include feather, compete, perpetual, ptomaine, symptom, and hippopotamus I went to bartlbys site, read the definition, and clicked on the green pet in etimology and lo! there appeared the hippopotomus!
>"what does 'pinnate' mean" but rather "does everyone on the planet know this word except for me?"
Possibly, depends if you are into gardening or not. The short-hand is "grows like a pine tree", ie. spindly leaves sticking out not like a broad leaved deciduous tree.
Are they being mean again? I'll give those boys a good "seeing to".
By the way, is Maverick still spaced out on absinthe, I believe it did wonders for Van Gough!
from the definition given already: Resembling a feather; having parts or branches arranged on each side of a common axis: a polyp with a pinnate form; pinnate leaves.
Perhaps pine (not pine cone, pine tree) comes from pinnate, because the leaves branch out from the branch like a feather, the opposite would be like an oak tree, where the branches keep dividing.
the leaves branch out from the branch like a feather
The illustration at Faldage's link, http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/P0317400.html shows a stalk with nine little green blobs attached, four on each side and one at the tip. The blobs are leaflets, not leaves; "leaf" is the word for the entire structure, stalk plus leaflets. Hence the leaf -- the entirety -- has a feather-like structure (a central rib about which numerous appendages are symmetrical).
That particular picture appears to be a locust leaf. If you examine one up-close-and-in-person, there's a small knob where stem joins branch, but no such knob where leaflet joins stem. I assume (but do not know) that that is the technical distinction between leaf and leaflet.
My apologies for continueing this food thread. To Faldage and any other doubters. My wife being of Swiss descent we use our fondue pot quite often, have our own favourite recipe (including Gruyere, Emental, Vacherin, dry white wine, garlic, kirsch, and cornflour. I have never felt the need for nutmeg in it). Of course you can use the pot for the other fondues (Chinese, Bourgignon, chocolate). We often have raclette, though using small slices rather than the far more dramatic machine which melts the top slice off the whole round. My wife makes an excellent cheese tart as well. This morning we received the photos of our latest holiday at the chalet and have them on CD, so I can send any one who is interested photos of: a fondue on the balcony, traditional cheese making, and Gruyere village and castle which is a favourite trip of ours. PM me with your real e-mail if really want to see.
Now the word payoff: My dictionary defines fondue as a dish of melted cheese, from French, related to fuse=melt with intense heat. So why are Chinese (or Mongolian) fondue (mushroom bouillon to cook wafer thin slices of meat) and Fondue Bourgignon (boiling oil for meat cubes) also known as fondue? Because the (cheese) fondue pot or heating mechanism got reused or what?
RE: My dictionary defines fondue as a dish of melted cheese, from French, related to fuse=melt with intense heat. So why are Chinese (or Mongolian) fondue (mushroom bouillon to cook wafer thin slices of meat) and Fondue Bourgignon (boiling oil for meat cubes) also known as fondue? Because the (cheese) fondue pot or heating mechanism got reused or what?
Really? i have seen/been at parties that use fondue pots for melting chocolate for dipping (and it doesn't work well, the heat is usually to hot for the chocolate) but a Mongolian hot pot is not a fondue.. and i have never seen fondue pots used for that. i would be afraid to use my fondue pot yes, i still have one from years past for heating oil. the stand is ok, but not for heating oil... it just not sturdy/stable enough. and by the time your are drunk enought to think a fondue is a good idea, you are way to drunk to be messing about with boiling oil!
but is known as fondue chinoise in French, and I think Chinese Fondue in UK English. (Our family tends to use the French phrase because we eat it in Switzerland - I have never seen the thinly sliced meat in UK). Proper chocolate Fondues have a gentler heat source like a night light rather than a burner. Fondue Bourgignon uses a metal pot to hold the oil but on the same wide stable base we use for heating cheese. And we usually get pleasently merry during and after the fondue, rather than before. Anyway, I like fondues because it is difficult for my wife to see how much I am eating.
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