Tuesday, August 14, 2018

TOMATO, TOMAHTO.

People ask compulsive bloggers (like me, for instance) how they can keep on day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, thumping away at our keyboards.

And more curiously, where do you get your ideas?

Some people travel widely in their home area armed with a camera.

I used to do that and I still occasionally sally forth looking for inspiration.

But in recent months I've become more and more of a hermit . . . well, not totally because SWMBO is here, too.

So the ideas pop up closer to home.

Like today, for example, from a grocery bag.



A bag from Trader Joe's.

As I was folding it up I noticed this on the bottom.


First that made me think of my Internet friend Tess Kincaid, now living in London but still a huge fan of, as she puts it, a puddle of ketchup.

Wait, isn't it catsup?

Fittingly, the Trader Joe's empire used a cat to explain.


And that led me to think of the old "you say tomato, I say tomahto" tune.

It was originated by George and Ira Gershwin for the 1937 movie Shall We Dance, featuring an amazing dance on roller skates by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Take a listen and a look and, please, watch to the end.



Now do you see how my blog posts arrive?

14 comments:

  1. I don't much care how your posts arrive. I find them interesting and I like reading them. Especially on Friday's when you make me laugh!

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  2. Thank you, Peace Thyme, I appreciate that.

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  3. A cat is a purrrfectly good authority on the subject.

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  4. That was a fabulous film clip! Remember those old roller skates that tightened onto your shoes and would slip off and destroy your shins! I always enjoy your posts no matter what the subject!

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  5. What a delight! So Gershwin. Those 2 were passable songsters, but boy could they move! Love everything they did together. This was adorable. Thanks! There is a wealth of cool stuff on the Internet and who has time to glean it all? Bloggers!

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  6. You mean it's not catchup?

    Val, you should be ashamed, you are way too clever to go for the puuurfect pun.

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  7. Okay, Joe, I'm hanging my head in shame, now that your justice has ketched-up to me...

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  8. So familiar a process.

    Probably from a Malay word for fish sauce. Granulated salt a rather modern idea, most cultures used a salty condiment, often fish based.

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  9. Wonderful post, thanks for that. I can't help seeing that old clip and thinking of my parents and others I know who grew up during the time when Shall We Dance was a brand new film. It's a kind of magical, step back in time, thing for me.
    As far as reading sacks goes, I was on a field trip remodeling gift shops and staying in small motels with the supervisor of those activities. He hates to read, even to this day. I love to read, anything I can get my hands on. He threw up his hands in exasperation when I turned over the small paper sack that we had received part of dinner in and I found, printed in the tiniest of letters, "We have the best sacks around."
    :)

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  10. language is fascinating!
    (btw the pirate did have a pint...and a second one bought for him!)

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  11. Well that was certainly a fun post and a great little break from my work! I never question where you get your ideas, I just love reading them.

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  12. The British pronounce it "tomahto," and we have been jokingly corrected by our British friends for saying "tomayto." In fact, one British friend -- a fellow gardener -- reminded us we must say "tomahto plahnt," rather than "tomayto plant"!

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