Stitchery in the 18th century at the Colonal Paul Wentworth House, Rollingsford New Hampshire
Stitchery In The 18th Century August 27, 2016
A Plethora of Socks July 3, 2009
These socks plus the baby beanie are what I have been knitting lately. I just love the Regia Kaffe Fassett colours sock yarn.
Now I want to write a few words about rhubarb – unrelated to socks as far as I know but I just feel like writing about it. We have rhubarb growing in our garden.
rather pathetic isn’t it but it’s early days yet for the 2nd crop. Then Ian will make a delicious rhubarb and apple and raisin pie. Meanwhile we’ll depend on store-bought rhubarb for those pies.
I subscribe to a service called Word a Day. A few days ago rhubarb was the word for the day. To quote from the site:
“MEANING:
noun: A heated dispute; brawl.
ETYMOLOGY:
The origin of the plant name rhubarb is from Greek rha (perhaps from Rha, an ancient name of the river Volga on whose bank rhubarb was grown) + barbaros (foreign), but why the word developed this slang sense is unknown. We do know that this usage was popularized in baseball. The Oxford English Dictionary has the first citation from 1943:
“Mr ‘Red’ Barber,.. who has been announcing the games of the Brooklyn Dodgers, has used the term ‘rhubarb’ to describe an argument, or a mix-up, on the field of play.” (NY Herald Tribune)”
The name Red Barber caught my eye. I remember him from the 1940’s when I was a keen fan of the Boston Red Sox.
