|
Matthew Greenia Dear Matthew, The chefs that cut onions under water are right. Onions contain a pungent volatile oil, rich in sulfur, which is responsible for their characteristic flavor and smell. The sulfur turns into sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid on contact with moisture. The moisture in your eyes and nostrils works just fine. The acid stings and the tears are nature's way of washing the acid away. Same principal as acid rain. The warmer the climate in which the onion is grown the more oil it contains. The secret of Georgia's official vegetable, the Vidalia Onion, is it's low sulfur content. Onion is an interesting word and comes from the Latin unus, one. Other words derived from unus are union, ounce, inch uncial, unanimous, university and universe. The onion played a pivotal role in O. Henry's story The Third Ingredient. O. Henry wrote more than the Cisco Kid. I have more respect for O. Henry's Cisco Kid, The Caballero's Way, than the Do Gooders in the movies. Cisco worked alone. There was no Poncho. Numbers 11:5 is the only mention of onions in the Bible. The Israelites were complaining about the manna they were eating and laminating the melons, cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic they had become accustomed to in Egypt There are two female names Una with different meanings. The Irish Una means a lamb. The true Irish form is Oonagh or Oona. Charley Chaplain's wife was Oona Chaplain. Juno is also an Irish form as in Sean O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock. Today Una is generally anglicized as Winnie or Winifred in Ireland. Edmund Spencer, however, is responsible for another Una based on the Latin unus. In the Faerie Queene, Una is the symbol of truth, in contrast to the double dealing Duessa. It is for Una that Saint George slays the dragon. All recipes in old cook books began "Take Ye Onion". While we are on the subject the origin of the pronoun Ye was a misinterpretation of the Saxon thorn, which had the same th sound as the Greek theta, by William Bastard's Normans. The Norman's substituted a Y for the thorn. Ye is pronounced the and yt is pronounced that. They are abbreviations. Mr was originaly written as Mr. There is however, the old nominative second person plural pronoun ye; as in O! Ye of little faith. Anyway, Practical Housekeeping said it best: "Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And half-suspected , animate the whole." Incidentally Chicago, as in the city of, means smelly wild onion place in Ojibwa, she-kag-ong. Your advocacy of abusing Tomatoes is disturbing. The Georgia Code 2-16-3 provides severe penalties for the mere disparagement of agricultural products including Tomatoes. In light of the recent arrest of the Rat Murderer the State might seek the Death Penalty in a case of Tomato Abuse. Richard E. Irby, Jr. |
|---|