Hungry for Love
Nov. 20th, 2012 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyI am watching Dante's Peak, the 1997 film in which Pierce Brosnan tackles a volcano without once getting his hair mussed up. Pierce's boss, who pooh-poohed Pierce's suggestion that the volcano was going to erupt, has just plummeted to his death in a boiling, raging river. Of course he has. That's what he gets for pooh-poohing Pierce and his hair. I do enjoy a good disaster film.
This week's random word:
26. Mutton
Mutton is one of those English words for meat that we have taken from the French, while using the Old English words for the animal it comes from. Mouton becomes mutton, scēap becomes sheep, and so on with beef/cow, veal/calf, pork/pig, poultry/chicken and venison/deer. It doesn't work for all types of meat, but it's quite handy.
According to my thesaurus, a synonym for mutton is sheepflesh, which... on the one hand, technically, yes; on the other, I have never heard anyone say that. I would look askance at anyone who announced they were having sheepflesh for dinner. No-one calls beef cowflesh.
Not far from the City by the Sea is a breeding colony of shearwaters. Back in the day, lacking sheep, early European settlers ate them by the dozen and named them muttonbirds, even though their meat apparently tastes more like beef with a mild hint of the sea (per Wikipedia). It is also a bit greasy (per my mother).
I wouldn't call mutton a glamorous meat, but it plays its part in the world of fashion. Men can grow muttonchops, for example, while in the 1890s women began wearing leg o'mutton sleeves, which grew in size each year until they disappeared in about 1906 (again, thanks, Wikipedia). That sounds rather like the sleeves puffed up each year until they burst, doesn't it? At any rate, that's more references in fashion than venison. Well done, mutton.
Next time: Bag
Now we have got that out of the way, what do vulcanologists do during an eruption? Pierce has spent the duration driving up and down the volcano to rescue his lady friend's family, which is making himself useful, if nothing else. His colleagues are just standing around hugging each other. Shouldn't they be, you know, monitoring things?
Pierce has just lit a match. I wouldn't have thought that was safe to do during a volcanic eruption, but he's the vulcanologist so I suppose he knows what he's doing.
Now he is being crushed in a car that is trapped in an abandoned and rickety mine shaft. He is having a bad day. His hair still looks amazing, though, so there's that.
This week's random word:
26. Mutton
Mutton is one of those English words for meat that we have taken from the French, while using the Old English words for the animal it comes from. Mouton becomes mutton, scēap becomes sheep, and so on with beef/cow, veal/calf, pork/pig, poultry/chicken and venison/deer. It doesn't work for all types of meat, but it's quite handy.
According to my thesaurus, a synonym for mutton is sheepflesh, which... on the one hand, technically, yes; on the other, I have never heard anyone say that. I would look askance at anyone who announced they were having sheepflesh for dinner. No-one calls beef cowflesh.
Not far from the City by the Sea is a breeding colony of shearwaters. Back in the day, lacking sheep, early European settlers ate them by the dozen and named them muttonbirds, even though their meat apparently tastes more like beef with a mild hint of the sea (per Wikipedia). It is also a bit greasy (per my mother).
I wouldn't call mutton a glamorous meat, but it plays its part in the world of fashion. Men can grow muttonchops, for example, while in the 1890s women began wearing leg o'mutton sleeves, which grew in size each year until they disappeared in about 1906 (again, thanks, Wikipedia). That sounds rather like the sleeves puffed up each year until they burst, doesn't it? At any rate, that's more references in fashion than venison. Well done, mutton.
Next time: Bag
Now we have got that out of the way, what do vulcanologists do during an eruption? Pierce has spent the duration driving up and down the volcano to rescue his lady friend's family, which is making himself useful, if nothing else. His colleagues are just standing around hugging each other. Shouldn't they be, you know, monitoring things?
Pierce has just lit a match. I wouldn't have thought that was safe to do during a volcanic eruption, but he's the vulcanologist so I suppose he knows what he's doing.
Now he is being crushed in a car that is trapped in an abandoned and rickety mine shaft. He is having a bad day. His hair still looks amazing, though, so there's that.