A night of sleep wasted.

[Leo Tanner]

I'd rather have a rope shirt than a rope neck tie.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

There's worse riddles, tho. My wife ain't from hereabouts (she's foreign born). A coupla nights ago she asked me a question that took me back to 1st grade or so, and for which I never heard a satisfactory answer: why is Kansas City in Missouri (or Missoura)?

'Cause dey done built Kansas City Kansas first, an' didn' like de way it turned out, nah.  So dey crossed de river ta Missouri an' started over...

[Daniel Nighteyes]

Some of them brought a plant that gets sticky and slimy when cooked, next thing you know they are callin' clay types that get real sticky and slimy, gumbo.  Guess they could have called that clay okra.

Y'all just don't know how to cook okra.  Yes, it gets sticky and slimy if you boil it, but so do some cuts of beef.  Both the word and the food "gumbo" are derived from an African name for okra -- Yumbo.  Nearly any good gumbo contains okra.

Speaking of which, I'm getting ready to make my Holiday Gumbo.  I derive the stock from the carcass of the Thanksgiving turkey, and make the roux with butter.  And it gets even better from there.

[Delmonico]

The pods themselves are often called gumbo and some folks cook up the turkey frame.

[Delmonico]

BTW it is I-oh-way, not I-oh wa, got several Ioway Indone friends who know the right way to say it.  Course Grandma Carman was from that state also and said I-oh-way.

[Texas Lawdog]

What about  pa cons  or  pee cans?

[Delmonico]

What about  pa cons  or  pee cans?

I thought they were pee-cons, not pa-cons or pee-cans.  A pee-can sounds like a cheap chamber pot.

[Leo Tanner]

I'm one of them folks that get irritated when folks pronounce the "t" in often.  Websters finally gave in and shows boths ways now but when I was kid it had ta be off-en.  It's supposed ta be like potpouri.
You may ask, "Leo, why do ya even give a dern?".  Well, when yer taught diction by a big fat caddilac penguine with a yardstick the stuff just sticks with ya.  Them things hurt. 

[Delmonico]

(Delmonico makes a note to take his yardstick when he finally gets to meet Leo.)

And for the record, it is a pick-up, a truck is a somewhat different critter and to call a SUV a truck is a mortal sin.   

[Russ T Chambers]

(Delmonico makes a note to take his yardstick when he finally gets to meet Leo.)

Just remember Del, ya gotta dress-up in a penguin suit.  Else ya might get arrested for illegal carry of a yard stick!!!

[Delmonico]

Just remember Del, ya gotta dress-up in a penguin suit.  Else ya might get arrested for illegal carry of a yard stick!!!

Mine says Hy-land Lumber Company on it, don't need no permit for it.

[Leo Tanner]

Hey, I let the penguines hit me cause God was watchin an all.  You on the other hand have no such pertection.  That an I was a kid then, aint sure I'd let a penguine whack me these days.

[Leo Tanner]

Wish I coulda found an original clip, but these kids did good ceptin for they didn't get knocked down the stairs at the end...

[Texas Lawdog]

The things you miss out on, by not attending a Catholic school!

[Leo Tanner]

Oh, you missed a bunch.  Be glad you did.  (tip, don't crawl over the pews when at a Mass).

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

I interrupt this bull session to bring you some vitally important news:

Pee-can is the yankee-trying-to-sound-southron pronunciation.  The correct, Southron pronunciation is pa-cahn.

I feel qualified to speak on this--My grandfather, then uncle, ran a Jazz Feed Store in Opelika for a good deal of the 20th century. One of their busiest businesses was cracking pecans with a several-ton pecan-cracking machine.  It was a beast.   Every winter the family looked forward to huge bags of fresh, cracked pecans.  I miss them days.... Hell, I miss the store and the smell of sawdust and saddles and the cotton warehouse in the back....

[Daniel Nighteyes]

Pee-can is the yankee-trying-to-sound-southron pronunciation.  The correct, Southron pronunciation is pa-cahn.

Absolutely.  Some of the world's best pa-cahns come from orchards in Mobile and Baldwin Counties in Alabama.

Oh, Delmonico, don't ever try to cook with the wood from a pecan tree, unless you've got a ton of it and three helpers to tend the fire.  That stuff burns FAST, and doesn't generate a whole lot of heat.




<--- Learned this the hard way in the aftermath of Hurricane Frederic in 1979.

[Ozark Tracker]

JD's right on the pronouncing  pecan,   JD,  we had about 55 pecan trees on one of my Granddad's pastures,  we had a family of Indians that would pick on shares every year.  we'd have a shaker come in and shake the trees so all the nuts would be on the ground,  Grandma would take them over to Muskogee and sell all but about 200 pounds, she'd have them cracked and we'd have pecans all the next year.   sure was good.

my Mom worked at a cotton company for several years,  I always liked going to work with her and going back in the grading room,  that cotton smelled good.

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

JD,  we had about 55 pecan trees on one of my Granddad's pastures,  we had a family of Indians that would pick on shares every year.  we'd have a shaker come in and shake the trees so all the nuts would be on the ground,  Grandma would take them over to Muskogee and sell all but about 200 pounds, she'd have them cracked and we'd have pecans all the next year.   sure was good.

Man, that's heaven, OT!     fresh pecans, pecan pie...mmm mmm...  And the smell of the cotton...  My grandad's store hadn't changed at all since about the 1930's.  As a kid, when we'd drive down to Opelika, I'd spend all day in there pokin' around.  Had some fascinatin' stuff on the shelves.  And in the warehouse. My uncle would hang out back there with a .22 rifle loaded with ratshot, to shoot the rats as they ran fer cover.  I never could get my parents to let me take up rat huntin'.  Probably why I'm so screwed up today. 

Mr. Nighteyes, you're sure right about that.  I've never had pecans as good as those Alabama ones.   

[litl rooster]

yep cuz a pee- can is what you take to the sleepn' chamber at night