OK, McCain has got me mad now. You've heard the story about him not remembering how many houses he owns — see this map. I worry more about his memory than his bank accounts there. Obama's hit him with an ad on the topic (here — I like it), and the McCain campaign released a statement attacking Obama (again) as elitist. It includes this:Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula … really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?What the hell? I'm a serious arugula eater myself, and the price really is cheaper than most junk food.
But there's a little language angle: As one Wonkette commenter pointed out, Obama should use the name of the plant that's used in many other English-speaking countries: rocket. You can't accuse somebody of being elitist for eating rocket, for crying out loud.
PS: Idle political question: Will Obama hold the veep announcement if this story gets going, to let McCain bleed before he takes attention away from it?
Image from here.
9 comments:
Oh! That's what arugula is!
Just the right little bit of bitterness / bite in the taste. I eat it several times a week!
Hmmm, rocket. Just had it in England. Tastes better when you call it that.
I heart arugula.
-bitter elitist
Oh yeah, arugula is the PERFECT food for bitter elitists, I guess. I'm getting hungry.
That 'idle' PS maybe isn't so idle: WaPo flat out says that that's how it is: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/08/analysis_why_the_heated_home_d.html?hpid=topnews
The comment makes sense to me... arugula is seen as a specialty green in the States, it isn't widely found/available. It's also significantly more expensive than other (tastier, in my opinion) choices like romaine and iceberg.
Look up the etymology of 'arugula' to see how it is connected to 'rocket'...
It's called rucola in standard Italian. Arugula was a dialectal term. (Recently came up on my blog too.) But I don't get people calling it 'bitter'. It's peppery! (But maybe that's UK rocket vs US arugula?)
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