"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

meako said:
Is it possible that a plant or its fruit was named after something taxonomically different because it looks the same...?
Lets face it.....discoverers were often under pressure from others....it goes for place names as well....errrr lemmethinkaminute...New York, New England ( theres one in northern NSW too)
New Amsterdam( nobody goes there except scientists studying penguins)....erm Rosewood?? We have a "native"strawberry which is a weedy barely edible thing and hails from India...but it looks eggzackly like a strawberry...
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That is most likely the case. Maybe somewhere in the English-speaking world they call papayas “pawpaws”.

It’s like your possum vs. our opossum, which everybody just calls “possum” anyway, or the English robin vs. the American one.
 
5K Qs said:
J Just Tom. and Jack Black Jack Black , grenade-shaped and Middle Eastern, East African makes my first guess be pomegranate (based on name).

- GT
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No, not a pomegranate Gary. When I was a kid, it seemed we only had a handful of different types of fruit here, but we did have pomegranates, which were consumed around Halloween. Having grown up with so little fruit, travelling around Europe and the Middle East as a teenager really was a revelation :)
Just Tom. said:
No, it is a green thing with segments that make it look sort of like a fragmentation grenade as I recall. The segments taper inwards towards the middle of the fruit, and each one has a black seed in it. I should have specified that I don’t know the English word for it. My wife calls it “aat”, but which of the 3 languages she grew up speaking that is, I’m not sure…

Edit:
I found this picture on the internet. I’m pretty sure it is the same thing I remember. Jack?
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I'm afraid my memory is going after 40-odd years (going from yesterday too!). My recollection, if we are talking about the same thing, is that the fruit was more grenade-shaped than spherical :)
meako said:
The pic looks like Custard Apple...they need to be very ripe...yum...
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I think you're right Jon, though I'm still not sure that's what I used to love as a teenager. I should just go to the supermarket, since today, we have all sorts of exotic fruit and veg! :D :thumbsup:
 
Jack Black said:
My recollection, if we are talking about the same thing, is that the fruit was more grenade-shaped than spherical :)
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I too remember them being more grenade-shaped than the rounder one pictured. It might just be different varieties or growing conditions. The shape and color of the segments is spot-on, though. We may still be talking about the same thing.
 
Just Tom. said:
Fresh dates. I started noticing them in my local Korean supermarket a few years ago. They are not available year-round. They are hard and faintly sweet, a little bit like fresh sugar cane, and if you let them sit long enough they start to darken and go soft and sweet.
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Your makin me hungry
 
scrteened porch said:
That's what I said, but with horror.

Thanks. I'll be praying for @Rookie82, but I don't think I rate a lot of prayers for my bats and rabies.

Yeah. I had one maybe three years ago, and couldn't find an entry point, so I thought it must have tumbled down the water heater flue pipe. So when I got one last Monday, I figured two bats down a flue in three years wasn't an outrageous coincidence. I successfully remonstrated with that one, and was quite relaxed the next night, till I was awakened by the flubbity flubbity of another bat, and when I turned on the light I saw there were two of them wheeling around me. I successfully remonstrated with one, but the other made itself scarce.

Professional help is expensive, but he's got the chimney flues all sealed up with screens and caps, and a one-way bat valve on the apparent entry point in the soffit. I could have extemporized a bat valve with flashing, but I don't do rooves, so it's worth it.
So they should be gone, but I've been sleeping sealed up in the back bedroom (after my week's absence), because I'm such a coward.

As for the rabies, I don't think I was bitten, and they're usually not rabid anyway, but it's common to not feel a bat bite, and the vaccine is apparently a standard precaution. My doctor is a genius and a saint, so I do what she says.

I'll cheer them up in the emergency room by singing Werewolves of London.
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Yes, take all precaution regarding rabies. I believe even a tiny invisible scratch is be enough to get it, and alas the Milwaukee protocol seems not to improve outcomes more than perhaps on the third decimal. It’s a bloody scary disease. Thank god for the vaccine

edit:
My parents-in-law live in Russia and she got bitten by a “wild” kitten. Rabies is endemic in Russia, so she got some vaccine against it. Only downside was she couldn’t drink alcoholic drinks for months. I imagine that would have been quite a challenge for my father-in-law 😊
 
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Rookie82 said:
Hello all. I’m in ICU fighting Covid. Could be a long fight from what they say. Keep me in your thoughts if you please. Thanks friends.
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Good luck, but I’m sure you’ll be fine, they’ve learnt so much about how to treat covid since it broke out. When you are back on your feet you’ll have a load of antibodies protecting you from all Greek lettered variants out there. 👍
 
jackknife said:
I always have felt this place was the best sub forum on the 'net, but now I really know it. Having a half a dozen giveaways running at one time is so cool!!!

I don't know of anyother forums with this kind of generous behavior.

Bunch of great folks here at the 'folksy' place!

Carl.

Edited by Blues to add the following to JK's post:

Please read this post for further information regarding this thread...Thanks!
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Sometimes I take some time away from this place but it always feels good to come back!
 
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