i was recently in Montana, visiting the splendid Holly/Tyler/Arya group. Also present was Pirate Tom (so called due to the hat he was wearing when i first met him). Anyway, we were all having dinner out one evening when Tom looked at the menu and saw an order of pollock (the kind of whitefish) and chips on offer. He associated this with terminology for people of Polish heritage, of which my own is over 98%+. This sparked a bit of conversation - i prefer to be called 'Polish' or "jess", thank you, not a 'Polack' - the term has a negative connotation in the area where i grew up. Bits of this exchange continued, and i received an email the other day linking the wikipedia article for the cultural group 'Poles': " The Poles (Polish: Polacy, pronounced [pɔˈlat͡sɨ]; singular masculine: Polak, singular feminine: Polka) are a nation of predominantly West Slavic ethnic origin who are native to East-Central Europe, inhabiting mainly Poland. ". (shakes head.) Technically, i suppose that makes me a 'Polka'. This begs the question, like the dance? This seems to be a bit complicated, but yes. There is an origin story wherein a young Bohemian girl, made up a dance (called the Madera? one that she called the Madera?) to a traditional song called " "Strýček Nimra koupil šimla", or "Uncle Nimra Bought a White Horse"". This dance caught the attention of a man names Joseph Neruba, who took it to Prague in 1835 where it became famous. While that story is romantic, the dance has been documented as existing since at least 1822, the steps set by a Czech poet named Celakovsky to a song called "The Polish Maiden". Because of it's lively steps (and the fact that it's FUN, imho), the dance style became a internation phenomenon in the mid-late 1800s, and continues to this day (super common at country dance halls all over south Texas, at least, and i have also learned a hoppier Wisconsin beer garden version; weirdly, it's officially the WI state dance). Moreover, polka dots are just a pattern that became popular in the mid-1800s, attaching 'polka' to their name to capitalize on a popular dance of the time.
In looking at the wikipedia article for the fish Pollock, it turns out that most fish-and-chips fish is Pollock, as well as being " In the U.S. and worldwide, it is the primary fish used by the McDonald's chain in their Filet-O-Fish sandwich ". Continuing this strange fried-foods-wiki-arc is the chip butty, 'butty' being a conjunction of bread-and-butter, apparently, which lead to discovery of that french fry sandwich's mention in the official song for the Sheffield United football fans, sung the the tune of John Denver's 'Annie's Song'. That last part really struck me as odd - i don't associate soccer anthems with John Denver, but i suppose it IS a pretty and nostalgic tune. Finally, to complete the arc, the Australian dish Pie Floater, which is a meat pie upended into pea soup. And that's where i tap out.
Apparently, i was using all sorts of uncommon phrases while in Montana (according to Tom). One of these was 'pig in a poke'; this is usually used in reference to having purchased something without having seen exactly what it may be. i checked, and the phrase has been in use since the Middle Ages, and involves selling someone what they thought was a piglet in a closed bag. Upon opening the bag at a later time, the buyer would discover that the animal inside was in fact a cat, dog, etc. "Poke" is another word for bag, from the French poque. This phrase is related to "letting the cat out of the bag", or "buying a cat in a bag", and the wikipedia page has documented similar phrases in over 25 different languages.
Holly's family frequently says that a mischievous child is 'full of the Dickens'. (i adore Holly's family, and the use of that phrase completely suits them. Good old-fashioned intelligent trouble.) The origin of this phrase was called into question. Urban Dictionary, in true fashion, reports that it is to be " to have the spirit of a raging Charles Dickens through your blood stream
", which, while certainly capturing the spirit of the word, is probably incorrect. Weirdly, Dictionary.com reports it to date back to the mid-16th century, as a euphenism for the devil, as well as deriving from the name 'Dicken' (Richard). Holly herself concurred, offering up the devil -> devilkins -> dickens evolution of the phrase.
Linked from Ryan regarding literary descriptions of skin color is this slightly risque buzzfeed article.
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