Footnotes to a Conversation, March 21, 2022
“There was an Old Man in a tree,
Whose whiskers were lovely to see;
But the birds of the air pluck’d them perfectly bare,
To make themselves nests in that tree.” – Edward Lear
This week’s conversation is filled with words, dogs, terroir, and French daydreams. Enjoy!
So, Well, Umm
Filler words and phrases are more important than they first appear. They can display interest in what the other person is saying (Yeah, Really) or help the speaker reconnect with her audience (Sorry, Right?, Does that make sense?). They can express emotions (Oh,no!, Wow!, Are you serious?)
Let’s take this one step further. “Imagine how challenging it is to use verbal fillers accurately in a second or third language. Or, um, rather, since there is already a more spacious canvas, maybe one should not even bother sprinkling them in. Indeed, interpreters are trained to omit fillers, so as not to be perceived as uncertain or create doubt with the accuracy of an interpretation. Ironically, using filled pauses naturally, ‘accurately,’ where they are expected in conversation, can result in the speaker being perceived as fluent, or at least communicatively competent in a second or third language.” [JSTOR Daily]
The Dog Will See You Now
We take advantage of dogs’ superior sense of smell in so many different ways and places – search and rescue, bomb and drug detection, and even nature conservation (pinpointing bat roosts) – so why don’t we use them in the medical field as well? We have learned that dogs can detect Covid and bacterial infections, malaria, and cancer. What is missing is large-scale testing and development of standards and guidelines. “It may require many more years in the making, but the odds of encountering a working biomedical scent detection dog in a laboratory, hospital, or airport are creeping up.” PS If you’re not keen on dogs, don’t worry. They may well be working in a lab and never come in contact with actual patients. [JSTOR Daily]
Social Terroir
What is terroir? It’s a word we often bandy about when discussing wine and it’s often defined as the soil on which the grapes are grown. But is that broad enough? Dave Broom, who writes about whisky, argues “The one element often overlooked is the human one: the intentions of the founding distiller and the people who craft the whisky.” Two other whisky journalists agree, saying social terroir “has a stronger influence than any yeast strain, barley type, local water supply or environmental factor. A whisky should both benefit and reflect the people and agroecological context that magic it into existence through fermentation, distillation, alchemy and patience.” It’s an interesting perspective that encompasses the importance of the land, the farmer/producer, and the local food system. Yet more incentive for me to shop locally and to get to know the person who is growing or producing the food I eat. [Vittles]
La Belle France
Felicity Cloake, food writer for The Guardian, has written an amusing account of her bicycle journey around France sampling the key cuisine from each area she passes through – cassoulet in the southwest, boeuf bourguignon in Burgundy, and fish soup in Marseille. She includes recipes, tips on purchasing food in France, and hilarious accounts of camping in the rain, entering posh restaurants in her oil-streaked cycling apparel and clickety-clack shoes, and persuading her non-cycling friends up yet one more hill. One More Croissant for the Road is for people who love food, France, and/or cycling. Just one tip – you may want to prepare a gourmet snack before sitting down to read.
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.