Favourite quote...

Dad's Dictionary...

PHIZZOG

Honestly, I really don't know where my dear father got these words from. "Go wash yer phizzog, you got chocolate from ear to ear" (and I can't for the life of me figure out who he would've said this to...)

Your phizzog, or fizzog, or physog... is slang for your face! It's a word that has been around in Britain for at least 200 years, yet I have never heard anybody else use it.

"The source of all the slang forms is physiognomy. This came into English in the fourteenth century from Greek via French. The Greek derives from phusis, nature, and gnomon, a judge or interpreter. The first sense in English was that of judging a person’s character from his features. A little later, it added the idea of predicting a person’s future from his face; this seems a perilous method of divination, though not a surprising one, since prognosticators have tried everything from inspecting chicken entrails to studying the shape of clouds. However, the main sense of physiognomy has long been that of the facial features themselves.

The word has always been too long and scholarly-sounding to be welcome in the ears of English speakers. Even before they chopped it back to phiz they were slurring it. Shakespeare has the Clown in All’s Well That Ends Well assert that the Black Prince’s fisnomy was better known in France than England."

(Text taken from www.worldwidewords.org)

Munchy Monday 46: Coconut snowballs

These are delicious and ideal if you have a sweet tooth. It's also an interesting way to get non-carrot lovers to eat carrots, as they don't taste like carrot at all!

You will need:
Equal quantities of:
     Cold, boiled (no salt) mushed carrot
     Granulated or caster sugar
     Coconut
Extra coconut to roll balls in

Method:
Squeeze as much liquid from your carrot as you possibly can (very important.) Discard juice. Add carrot to sugar and coconut and mix well. Make small balls, about the size of an unshelled hazelnut and then roll them in the extra coconut. Keep snowballs in fridge and serve chilled.

 

NOTE: I used an American cup as a measure and made about 40 snowballs.

(Maybe I should have taken the photo using a banana for scale! It seems it's the fashion these days.)

Smile for the camera...

Happy quokka!

Just couldn't resist posting this! My son sent it to me just now in an e-mail.

Your science lesson today is to find out about these dear little creatures, where they are found, what they eat and how they live. I already have and it will only take you two minutes! With a name like quokka, doesn't it inspire you to find out more?

Ex Libris - Death of a Guru

Death of a Guru is written by Rabi R. Maharaj, "a descendant from a long line of Brahmin priests and gurus and trained as a Yogi. He meditated for many hours each day, but gradually disillusionment set in. He describes vividly and honestly Hindu life and customs, tracing his difficult search for meaning and his struggle to choose between Hinduism and Christ." (Comment form the back of the book)

I have read this book more than once, and would recommend you, blogger friends, to do the same. It's the kind you can't put down until you've reached the end, it's such an amazing true story.

From Harvest House publishers, Eugene, Oregon.

Dad's Dictionary...

  LACKADAISICAL

 
This is one of those words that, for some reason, reminds me of my teenager years. My Dad used it in the same sentence as "bend yer lazy old back". We seemed to hear it oh, so often...

This word is delightfully evocative, bringing to mind some languid person lolling on a couch while all around goes to ruin, so accurately evoking its modern idea of somebody who lacks enthusiasm and determination or is carelessly lazy.

It owes its origin, strangely enough, to an old saying of regret or dismay, lack-a-day!, a shortened form of alack-a-day!. Alack dates back to medieval times, and probably comes from a dialect word lack that is variously interpreted as failure, fault, reproach, disgrace, or shame. So alack-a-day! originally meant “Shame or reproach to the day!” (that it should have brought this upon me). But over time it became weakened until it became no more than a vapid and vacuous cry when some minor matter went awry.

Later it moved towards the idea of somebody who was affectedly languishing, and thence to someone merely lazy.

Text taken from www.worldwidewords.org  It's a fantastic etymology web, very interesting indeed to those who like words as much as I do.

From the archives...

 Oh, for snow...

Munchy Monday #45: Garlic and parsley fried rice

This is a yummy accompaniment to many meals. I serve it with red meat, chicken and fish but also on its own. It's just so simple to prepare...

You will need:
Any type of white rice, boiled in salted water and allowed to cool.
Fresh or dried parsley, chopped.*
Fresh or frozen garlic, chopped or crushed*
Salt
Oil to fry

Method:
Pour oil into a frying pan (enough to almost cover the bottom of the pan) and place on a medium heat. Add garlic and parsley and fry very carefully for a few seconds. Add rice and gently stir fry for 5 to 7 minutes, adding a sprinkling of salt a couple of times during this process. Leave rice in pan until needed and re-heat if necessary.

This is a tasty way to serve leftover white rice from a previous meal.

*For every 500 g of rice I use 1 clove of garlic (or equivalent if using frozen garlic) and a heaped teaspoon of parsley. Bear in mind that fresh parsley has a stronger taste and therefore you might need a little less. I always use dried parsley.

I give up...

This morning, folks, I just couldn't find my glasses anywhere. Without my glasses I can't see much anyway!

Think, Think.

I'd had a shower. No, they were not in the bathroom.

I'd got dressed. No, they weren't on my bedside table, the bed or the dresser.

I'd put a wash on in the downstairs bathroom and no, they weren't on the cistern or on the toilet seat.

I had tidied the kitchen. Couldn't see them there either.

They'd vanished.

Wait a minute... As a last resort (which should have been the first thing to do, I guess) I asked the only other person who was conscious at the time: "Martí, have you seen my glasses anywhere?"

"Well," he answered, slowly, "as a matter of fact, I think someone has stolen them."

Bear in mind, of course, that all this happened over a period of twenty minutes or so. (Grrrrrr. Frustration. Honestly, this house is a madhouse, so typical of me, etc, etc,.)

So, you want to know the rest of the story? They say a picture speaks a thousand words...

They WERE in the kitchen. I must admit they suit him. Funky ball of wool!!!


I've just had one of those unwelcome thoughts that you would prefer to push to the back of your mind and leave it there till it's so dusty you can't think it any longer...

If this house is a madhouse, I'm the second in command!

Have a nice weekend, everybody.