Q: It wasn’t till I moved “abroad” that I found everyone outdoors of Texas calls a corny canine a corn canine. What offers?
Brock Hyland, Little Rock, Arkansas
A: Texan, as we name the native tongue of our state, is replete with idiosyncrasies. We say “fixin’ to” to imply “preparing to.” We say “tump over” to imply “tip over.” We deploy “y’all” greater than other people do, in addition to “howdy” and “reckon.”
And sure, all fluent Texans name corny dogs corny dogs. Why? Because that’s what they’ve been referred to as almost for the reason that time they have been conceived by Neil and Carl Fletcher on the State Fair of Texas, again within the early forties. After a few false begins involving “K-9s,” “brown bombers,” “french fried hot dogs,” and “meals on sticks,” the brothers, whose descendants promote half 1,000,000 Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs through the truthful annually, settled on “corny dog” because the title for this marvel of skewered, battered, and fried weenerie.
So why doesn’t the remainder of the nation name corny dogs corny dogs? Well, the Texanist reckons it’s as a result of different Americans’ parlances merely lack the linguistic luster of the Texas tongue, which has given the world such memorable phraseologies as “all hat and no cattle,” “Bloody Mary mornin’,” and “alright alright alright.” Hey, talking of enlivened tongues, the Texanist is a strict mustard man and has by no means actually understood the ketchup crowd. But then, the Texanist can also be a strict live-and-let-live man, so bon appétit, y’all!
Q: This 12 months I planted three jalapeño varieties in my salsa backyard, and one in all them grew Carolina Reapers! How may such a factor occur?
Cassandra Noonan Fortson, Austin
A: It’s a widely known undeniable fact that Texans are devotees of spicy meals. We have, in spite of everything, not one however two official state peppers, these being the workhorse jalapeño and our state native pepper, the chiltepin, a.okay.a. “the mother of all peppers.”
Thus it’s little shock, Ms. Fortson, that you’re versed sufficient in piquant crops to rapidly acknowledge one thing amiss within the pepper patch. And you weren’t alone. This summer time gardeners throughout the nation fell sufferer to #peppergate, a mix-up led to by seed suppliers mislabeling a few of their inventory. You skilled an excessive model of this phenomenon. The Carolina Reaper isn’t, in spite of everything, simply any old pepper; it’s the world’s hottest pepper, a thousand instances hotter than jalapeno.
So what does one do when life offers you super-spicy peppers? Well, you might attempt making a pot of the world’s hottest super-spicy chili or a pitcher of the world’s hottest super-spicy margaritas or a dish of the world’s hottest
super-spicy salsa. But in the event you’re not feeling fairly that daring, then the Texanist would advise plucking that interloping pepper plant and tossing it onto what would certainly be the world’s hottest super-spicy compost heap.
Have a query for the Texanist? He’s at all times available right here. Be certain to inform him the place you’re from.
This article initially appeared within the November 2023 situation of Texas Monthly. Subscribe as we speak.
