Sunday, January 17, 2021

Reados, prayer plant, cornbread

Just to show, despite my brief stay in the  slough of despond yesterday, I do have a prayer.  Prayer plant, that is, seen here doing very nicely and soon to be potted up.  And the primula, blazing away.  Three lovely Roma tomatoes ripening on the windowsill.

And since I am completely out of bread-adjacent foods, I had to make cornbread, so as to have a little something around for tea.  And for Handsome Son, visiting tomorrow, which will completely upset my notion of what day it is, since he usually visits on Sunday when his working hours permit.


 I used pastry flour wholewheat, instead of ap or hard wholewheat with the cornmeal, and the result is very tender, and really nice.  It's a buttery recipe, and as always, baking in cast iron is a good idea. Usually when I use wholewheat flour, which I do a lot, my cakes are sturdy, pick up a piece and eat type of thing. These are more genteel, as in use a fork, for pity's sake, what would your mother say if she saw you?

The reados in the title are times when you misread a word and go on for a bit before realizing you've got the wrong end of the stick.  Coined by my friend Mare long ago, and cherished by me as a great version of typo.  There are also speakos when you say something wrong by accident, meaning one word, finding yourself saying another, oops.

Today's reado was a common one for me: reading photography as pornography.  I don't know what this says about me.  And there's friend R. who read a blogpost a while back about some announcement librarians had made, and made a series of angry responses, brandishing the wrong end of the stick, throughout, and jumping on her hobbyhorse at the same time.  A couple of us wondered why she was so upset, then it turned out she'd read it as libertarians, a very different kettle of fish. Or horse of a different color.  Or other end of the stick, your choice.

One of the best is one I heard on radio ages ago, Joan Rivers the comedian, subbing for a regular talkshow host, and reading a PSA about heating.  This was in New York City, where tenants, of whom there are many, can call a special number to report if their heating goes out in winter.  It's known as an outage.  So she gets the script, totally misreads, gets all actressy and says, if this happens to you, call 311 and express your OUTRAGE!  Funny when a comedian is funny without realizing it.  She was pretty funny on purpose, so this was a bonus.

Doing better today, and thank you all for your helpful comments yesterday, also the friends who emailed encouraging words, too.  I'm getting there.


20 comments:

  1. But you know what's the worst thing of all? PORNOGRAPHIC LIBERTARIANS!

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  2. Corn bread, looks nice, I have never made it and I have never cooked anything in a cast iron pan.
    My bread machine died, so I bought a new one, it baked it's first loaf of bread yesterday, it was OK, but will take a bit of getting used to. used the other one to make the dough and then bake it in the oven.

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    1. I do like homebaked bread, however it's made. It sounds as if you had to use your ingenuity with the new bread machine.

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  3. Winter is hard the best of times. This pandemic doesn’t help. Glad you are feeling better today. You make beautiful cornbread.

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    1. Yes, this is a down time any year, true. And the additional pressure on everyone doesn't help.

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  4. That's me...reados and speakos. I'm getting worse as I get older. Ah well :)

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    1. I think as long as you realize it's the wrong word, it's okay, even if you can't recall the right one. Like losing your keys is okay, but not remembering what they're for is a bit ominous.

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  5. I think I may have a prayer plant in a planter I received recently. I didn't know what it was, but seeing yours and looking it up and seeing how droopy mine is after letting it dry out too much, I'm afraid, I'm now pretty sure that's what I've got. I've watered it really good and after 24 hours it's still not perking up, so we'll see if it will survive 'till warmer weather when I'm inclined to go out in the shed and find a new pot to repot it into.

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    1. It does droop its leaves in the evening, hence the name. Mine seems to like being in water. Western windowsill.

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  6. The older I get, the more reados I do. This sometimes makes crosswords even more challenging. And of course- Gilda Radner was the queen of the reados. Remember Rosanne Rosannadanna?

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  7. husband made some cornbread a while back, new recipe on the package called for buttermilk. it made a very creamy cornbread. and yes, always a cast iron skillet.

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    1. This one had whole milk and buttermilk. Better than the plainer recipes.

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  8. I'm glad you are feeling better. And I bet your home smelled absolutely wonderful after you baked that bread.

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  9. Well - photography / pornography - close. Recently made cranberry sauce muffins. Those are good too!

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  10. Interesting, the discussion over the misuse of words. Last night on the news I fell about laughing at the announcers mispronunciation of the word 'scarce'...for some reason she thought it should be 'scar...sss'. That's only one of many she manages to mess up. I listen to her just to see what she says next.
    I'm now craving cornbread - yours looks so good.

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    1. I get annoyed when people paid to talk get words wrong. Ordinary folk, it's okay but funny.

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