Longtime readers have come to realize that this blog is the written representation of my ceaseless search for meaning in life. Or, well, at least my search for meaning in words. You may recall, I have learned English by reading every printed object I could find in the nearest dumpster. (See Fun Fact Friday #28 and the three posts that follow it.) Sometimes, what I read is baffling. Occasionally, it's more than that—it's upsetting. For example, I was enjoying the last few crumbs in a box of cookies the other day, until I started reading the label. I encountered an ingredient I had never seen before. At first, I misread that word, and I though it said "terrified soybean oil." I have heard of plants going into shock, but this sounded a bit more severe. Then, I looked closer and realized that it actually said "interesterified," which sounds like a Bushism or a Sharptonism and doesn't get past my spell-checker. But it turns out interesterified is an actual word for an unnatural act performed on unwilling soybeans, so they may as well be terrified. I was frightened out of eating the rest of the cookie crumbs. And it makes me wonder how "degerminated yellow corn meal" must feel.* They say that reading is the key to learning. They also say ignorance is bliss. I may have to separate my learning from my eating. *My spell checker thinks I must have meant degemination (without the r).
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Meet the AuthorHi. I'm Geo the Seagull.
I'm the distinguished Park Host on South Jetty Beach at Bandon, Oregon, USA. I'm a firm believer in First Principles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Your Lunch. Archives
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