Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Plain Language

There were many words that confused me as a child because they weren't what they sounded like.


Take butterfly, for instance. It isn't really a fly. It isn't really butter. And it tastes icky (I'd like a second opinion though). Why did we name this insect after something it's not?


Or euthanasia. I thought to myself: "They're young. They're sexy. They're hip. They're Asian. What Chinese person doesn't look fondly on their euthanasia?" And then I found out what euthanasia was. So I changed my opinion of the matter.

Or buttermilk. It doesn't taste like butter or milk. I know this because I performed this experiment as a 9 year-old. I took milk and, well, Molly McButter because I somehow thought it work better than regular butter (powder dissolves better than solid butter does, as you may know). The result was, well, disappointing. And gagging. It was 10 years before I tried the real thing.
The same principle holds true for making orange julius from milk and powdered Tang. I learned the hard way.

3 comments:

matt said...

1 cup milk + 1 Tbs lemon juice = 1 part butter milk substitute

dont ask me how i know this

Anonymous said...

You write very well.

Jelarin said...

Butterfly is pronounced as "Flutter-by" by my friend's mom from the midwest and south. Maybe that's what we used to call them, and then someone mixed up the consonants. Euthanasia is just latin based or something, so what it sounds like, is by no means what it really means. And Buttermilk is slightly soured milk, which means that it's on it's way to becoming butter!