Post by Jeff on Aug 28, 2019 18:17:41 GMT -5
Pun, gents? (No, I'm not excluding the ladies--I'm just limited by my ability). Stretch those eyes because they're going to be rolling. If you're so inclined, take a warm-up round with Ben Ziek at the 2013 O Henry Pun-Off.
Scrapbook 49 is truly awful. Although titled Sweet Fragrances, a more apt title would be Suite of Flagrant Senses. We've moved beyond "copious" being defined as "every cop" (discussed in my last thread). I'm undoubtedly missing many or even most of the jokes. What puns or similar wordplay have you found in this scrapbook? Do you have a favorite?
We are told a mostly ridiculous story about Fenn dabbling in his wife's spice drawer. We are treated to some introductory text and a commentary on a list of "spices and herbs." There are several pictures, most of which involve cloves.
The list of "spices and herbs" is the "suite" from "sweet" in the sense of "set" of "flagrant" from "fragrances" in the sense of "obviously offensive" and "senses" from "fragrances" in the sense of tasting and smelling. From "awakens" "might be a typo" we find that "cayenne" sounds like "K N" and "awakens" sounds like "away K-N." Yup, a "typo." "Thyme" is "routine," because it sounds like "time" and uses the rhythm sense of the word. Fenn's grandchild "little Piper" doesn't mind his "lemon pepper" weirdness because he sounds like "li'lmon" and "pepper." "Whole nutmegs" "look like small pecans before you take the hulls off" because ""whole" sounds like "hull" and "pecans" are a type of nut. "Mace" sounds like "make," and this spice "makes me suspicious." "Paprika" sounds like "pa-pre-I-ca" which is subtly the "I can't" portion of his initial assessment "I can't tell if I like it or not." "Celery" sounds like "very" and hence "celery salt" is his initial impression of "very salty." "Bay leaves" "must grow near water" because a bay is small body of water. Further, you must "remove them before you serve the dish" and hence the bay leaf leaves the dish. Less certainly, "I would sure hope so" because a "hope" in a sense is a "belief" which sounds like "bay leaf." Perhaps subtly, they are "just leaves" because we are using the "honor" sense of the word "bay." "Anise seeds" are "probably okay" because they sound like "a nice seed." Further, Fenn used the variant spelling "liquorice" because "anise" flavors some "liqueurs," including with a bigger stretch the variety "pastis" which sounds like "pastries." There is the straightforward "Rosemary" as an herb and as a woman's name; I suspect that Fenn has something better up his sleeve and that something is beyond my perception. We are advised to "stay away" from "cloves," since one sense of cleave is to separate.
Some eyebrow raisers, for cataloging purposes:
> "Spices and herbs" instead of more colloquial (perhaps KFC related) "herbs and spices"
> Possibly the odd definitions of spices and herbs
> "It's smell is stronger than it's taste." It's instead of its.
> Variant spelling "liquorice"
> "The Indians may have used it to help tan skins"
> "Why would anyone buy cornstarch, which is more expensive"
Fenn discusses the concept of nearly or completely overlapping properties of things. He provides nearly identical definitions for "spices" and "herbs" in the second paragraph, "just so you'll know the difference." In the fifth paragraph, given the similarity of many spices he questions "why a cook needs so many different kinds." Near the end he quotes that arrowroot powder "may be substituted for cornstarch."
Fenn describe his examination of the spices using his senses, particularly smell and taste. He tells us "how some smells are so different from the way they taste."
Lastly, before he gets to his list, he states: "most didn't make much of an impression but here are some notes and observations about those that did."
Scrapbook 49 is truly awful. Although titled Sweet Fragrances, a more apt title would be Suite of Flagrant Senses. We've moved beyond "copious" being defined as "every cop" (discussed in my last thread). I'm undoubtedly missing many or even most of the jokes. What puns or similar wordplay have you found in this scrapbook? Do you have a favorite?
We are told a mostly ridiculous story about Fenn dabbling in his wife's spice drawer. We are treated to some introductory text and a commentary on a list of "spices and herbs." There are several pictures, most of which involve cloves.
The list of "spices and herbs" is the "suite" from "sweet" in the sense of "set" of "flagrant" from "fragrances" in the sense of "obviously offensive" and "senses" from "fragrances" in the sense of tasting and smelling. From "awakens" "might be a typo" we find that "cayenne" sounds like "K N" and "awakens" sounds like "away K-N." Yup, a "typo." "Thyme" is "routine," because it sounds like "time" and uses the rhythm sense of the word. Fenn's grandchild "little Piper" doesn't mind his "lemon pepper" weirdness because he sounds like "li'lmon" and "pepper." "Whole nutmegs" "look like small pecans before you take the hulls off" because ""whole" sounds like "hull" and "pecans" are a type of nut. "Mace" sounds like "make," and this spice "makes me suspicious." "Paprika" sounds like "pa-pre-I-ca" which is subtly the "I can't" portion of his initial assessment "I can't tell if I like it or not." "Celery" sounds like "very" and hence "celery salt" is his initial impression of "very salty." "Bay leaves" "must grow near water" because a bay is small body of water. Further, you must "remove them before you serve the dish" and hence the bay leaf leaves the dish. Less certainly, "I would sure hope so" because a "hope" in a sense is a "belief" which sounds like "bay leaf." Perhaps subtly, they are "just leaves" because we are using the "honor" sense of the word "bay." "Anise seeds" are "probably okay" because they sound like "a nice seed." Further, Fenn used the variant spelling "liquorice" because "anise" flavors some "liqueurs," including with a bigger stretch the variety "pastis" which sounds like "pastries." There is the straightforward "Rosemary" as an herb and as a woman's name; I suspect that Fenn has something better up his sleeve and that something is beyond my perception. We are advised to "stay away" from "cloves," since one sense of cleave is to separate.
Some eyebrow raisers, for cataloging purposes:
> "Spices and herbs" instead of more colloquial (perhaps KFC related) "herbs and spices"
> Possibly the odd definitions of spices and herbs
> "It's smell is stronger than it's taste." It's instead of its.
> Variant spelling "liquorice"
> "The Indians may have used it to help tan skins"
> "Why would anyone buy cornstarch, which is more expensive"
Fenn discusses the concept of nearly or completely overlapping properties of things. He provides nearly identical definitions for "spices" and "herbs" in the second paragraph, "just so you'll know the difference." In the fifth paragraph, given the similarity of many spices he questions "why a cook needs so many different kinds." Near the end he quotes that arrowroot powder "may be substituted for cornstarch."
Fenn describe his examination of the spices using his senses, particularly smell and taste. He tells us "how some smells are so different from the way they taste."
Lastly, before he gets to his list, he states: "most didn't make much of an impression but here are some notes and observations about those that did."
Now for some conjecture. He is providing "notes and observations" in the scrapbook's spice list. One purpose of this list could be simply a medium for his puns and similar contraptions. I assume but cannot verify given my limitations, that some sort of pun can be found in each item on the list (after all these were those that "make an impression"). If so, can we simply translate his talk about overlapping properties and smells different from tastes from the category "spices and herbs" to the category "words"? The same word may mean different things, different words may mean the same things, words have redundant or overlapping meanings, and words have variously overlapping and similar sounds as well as written forms. These properties of words are the basis of puns and other wordplay. Going out further on the limb, the "72 bottles" could refer to the 70-ish phenograms in English that allow for these linguistic twists.
My hypothesis is that at least one point of this story is not spices per se but puns and language in general. Therefore, when Fenn says of his childhood "my mom let me smell the different spices and herbs as she stirred them into recipes she was making," we may read this as the mixing together different sounds and symbols in recipes to make words.
Lastly we have "cloves," repeated in text and pictures. That spice looks like little nails and the verb form is related to the word "nails." We are told about spices that left an "impression" in the fifth paragraph and the "something sharp on the bottom" that "scraped a gash on the wooden tabletop" from the third paragraph. There are several hammer and/or nail images in TTOTC. What are your thoughts?
Does this scrapbook speak to you in some other interesting way?