According to my sources, today’s National Corn on the Cob Day. Note the “national.” There’ll never be an International Corn on the Cob Day, because people in other countries — particularly European ones — regard corn as animal food and won’t eat it.
Once, when we lived in the Netherlands, we threw an American-style 4th of July barbecue for our Dutch neighbors in the village of Hoevelaken. In addition to hot dogs and burgers, we grilled corn on the cob. Not a single person could bring themselves to try it. Later in the evening, though, we brought out sticks and a bag of marshmallows and demonstrated how to roast them to golden brown perfection over hot coals. Now that they liked. They couldn’t get enough!
I should have known better about the corn. We’d lived in Germany some years before, where they have separate words for eating depending on whether it’s a person or an animal doing it. People eat = menschen essen; animals eat = tiere fressen. I mean, it’s a big deal over there, the separation of humans from animals. No animal food for them! Although I seem to recall popcorn is as popular at the movies as it is here. But with sugar, not butter and salt.
I’ve loved corn on the cob since I was a boy, and it’s still one of my favorite things. No tripe for this guy, though, because I know where it’s been. So much for poking fun at Europeans over their squeamishness toward corn.
As for humans and animals, I remember my Southern Baptist Sunday school indoctrination. We’re sentient, they aren’t. We can choose between good and evil; they can’t. We have souls and a life after death; they just die. Putting humanity on a higher plane than the rest of creation is probably part of every religion and culture, though I think most of us, deep inside, harbor doubts. I sure do. Just another critter, me, fressing corn with the livestock in the barn, looking forward to being reunited with my pets in the afterlife.
The oleanders that serve as a sound barrier between us and the nearby highway are suddenly in bloom. They won’t be for long, so I took a photo. When we moved into this house 23 years ago, the oleanders were trimmed level with the top of the wall and you couldn’t see them from our yard. Our landscaper told us we should let them grow as high as they like to help cut the road noise, and as you can see we have. The folks who used to live next door cut and burned all the bush between their back yard wall and the highway, and the new owners envy our section of greenway. I suspect the coyotes, javelina, and bobcats appreciate it too.
The wall could do with a fresh coat of sealant and paint, but we don’t want to tear out the cat claw vine covering it. It blooms too, but that was last month. Pretty yellow flowers. Sorry I missed sharing that with you this year.
Our neighbouring farmer grew animal feed corn in the field next to a busy road.
We could always see where some people had climbed the fence and knabbed some. We always wished we could have seen their reaction when they went to chow down.
Looks great! And thanks for the story.