Small kine.

Small Kine is the Hawaiian term for their own pidgin language. It is fascinating because it has borrow words from a vast number of languages. Anyway. 'Small' is interpreted as philosophically small, unimportant, minor. And 'kine' is a slang term in it's own right, for 'stuff' or 'doohickey'. When you can't remember the word for something, it's 'da kine' (the kine). So, this post? Minor stuff.

Interestingly, while trying to find a good Hawaiian slang dictionary on line (no joy, they're not much for writing stuff down), I realized the "AY!" noise I yell at the Goob to get her attention is very likely derived from my years in Hawaii. Works, too.


Anyway, I've got some odds and ends and photos and stuff, and there were some questions in the comments.


But first! The best thing about Sesame Street is their ability to pull in stars from all branches of the arts, and have them ham it up with a couple-ten puppets. I live for those. (There's an all-star version of the ABCs that makes my head swim.) This morning's treat was Nathan Lane, singing the classic Sesame Street tune, "Sing a Song". Lane played it straight, in full Opera Voice and a tux, and did a lovely job. Though he occasionally looked at the three pig puppets dressed up like the Supremes like he was having trouble not laughing. Or maybe he was worried it was a drug flashback from his misspent youth? Anyway, good stuff. No link on YouTube that I can find. That's a shame.


Bells is learning to spin and to console her I took about ten photos of my first 'good' spinning project. Unfortunately the wool is white and won't photograph properly, even in full spectrum light with no flash. Anyway, it was merino wool top and after weeks of practice I thought I was good enough for it. It is uneven and horribly overspun; the skein has little centimeter-long bits sticking out all over where the yarn has double back on itself.


The Goob appears to be teething. If that's possible. I just tried to look it up on line and found the most horrifying photos and no real useful information. Guh. I'm gonna be seeing black teeth, all day. Anyway, she says her teef hurt, and she's been waking us up at night, fussing. Whatever's going on, she's in pain for sure, because last night I dosed her with Motrin right before bed and eight hours later, almost on the dot, she was in the living room going "MUMMA. MUUUUMMMMAAAAA." Anyway, here's a photo of my bundle of joy, looking kinda miserable.



While I was at it, I snapped a photo of my footstool, that looks like this:

Other than knitting and knitting charts, that's a stack of knitting books. I'm plotting next year's Christmas knitting. With the crazy year we have planned, I'd like to get one (preferably two) sweaters done this spring. Pipe dream, sure, but we all need goals.


COMMENT COMMENTS:
There've been a few comments about my creative spelling. Yeah. About that. See, I'm one of those freaks who reads whole words at a time? So as long as all the letters are there, I don't see it as 'wrong'. I've been running spell check, but we all know the flaws in that whole situation. So, well, sit on back and prepare to be amused some more. Short of hiring an editor I don't know what else I can do to fix it.


Grilltech was rather disappointed about the lack of history/anthro available on yesterday's key lime pie recipe, so here we go: The pie itself was developed within living memory, because people still argue over who the inventor was (it is mostly duked out between two restaurant/bars in Key Largo). From what I know, myself, I lean toward saying it was invented during or directly after WW2; it contains no sugar and uses local ingredients (key lime) and things you can grow in your back yard (eggs), which says 'food rationing' to me. Key limes are the mutated/evolved (depending on your view) version of Persian Limes (still native to SE Asia like the rest of citrus trees) that were originally planted in N America; most think they were planted by the English navy, (those Limeys,) who were known to plant limes everywhere they went as their scurvy cure. Eggs, we've already covered. Sweetened condensed milk was invented after canning was, simply to preserve milk. For some chemical reason that I can never understand, ADDING sugar to things can prevent bacterial growth. I always imagine the bacteria taking a bite and going "ARGH!" Rubbing their teeth, and taking a drink of tea, like I do when bite into something really super sweet. Food Timeline (best. website. ever.) dates eggs to the stone age (random eggs, collected from nests), key limes to 1839, canning to 1809-1810, and condensed milk to 1856. No listings for key lime pie, but obviously it HAD to come after 1856. At least in the form we know it. I'm sure the locals were eating the limes in other forms before then. There you go.


Sugar from beets accounts for about 30% of the world sugar output. It's better for the soil to grow sugar beets, but sugar cane grows faster and is probably the biggest-dollar crop available to grow in the tropics. Certainly one of the highest income, especially once you take into account labor needed for some other crops (like chocolate and coffee, that have to be hand harvested).


I was an oboe player, so I know for sure all double-reed players are raving. I think it's mostly because there comes a time you realize, no matter how good you get, you can always be made to look like crap by a reed gone bad at just the wrong moment. It makes a person paranoid. The reeds REALLY ARE OUT TO GET YOU.


Knitting for spouses and boyfriends... well, that's tricky. I simplify it further and don't knit for anyone but people I know will be in my life forever, who I trust to not throw my knitting into the washing machine on heavy duty/hot. This is why the list of people I knit for is very, very short.


Pachelbel's Cannon in D is really cool the first time you hear it. Really cool the first couple times you play it. After that, people need to die, or instruments run over. As the case may be.



I think that covers everything... is it just me, or is it totally WRONG to see them using computers (and computer animation!) on Sesame Street? Or rap? WTF is up with Ernie rapping? It's wrong. WRONG!!! CHILDHOOD CRISIS!!!