7 Comments

You describe corn as a grain trying to be a vegetable. How would you define "vegetable" in a way that doesn't include corn? It's like saying a carrot is a root trying to be a vegetable, or a pea is a seed trying to be a vegetable or spinach is a leaf trying to be a vegetable.

Expand full comment

YOU are trying to start an argument and I decline to join. Corn is a grain, a vegetable, and a fruit. I am a fruit who sometimes vegetates and takes life with a grain of salt.

Expand full comment

No. Just trying to clarify. I see no argument. I like that you say that it's a grain, a vegetable, and a fruit. Absolutely right. Unlike many who say that a tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable, without considering that many other vegetables, including peppers, squash, green beans, and okra are also fruits.

Expand full comment

My husband is from up north Wisconsin ( I am from NYC). He thinks about corn the way you do. It has to be 30 seconds from field to pot or it's not good enough!

Expand full comment

Your man has high standards and that's why he married you. He admires people who say what they think, though he wouldn't do it himself necessarily.

Expand full comment
founding

This raises an interesting question. How much of "saying what you think" is "natural," and how much comes from past experience? I wouldn't be surprised if "popularity" has a lot to do with it. If someone is in a social position in which, if they happened to scratch an itch in an inconvenient place, and it ended up in the media, causing a flurry of comments, I imagine that that person would be a lot more circumspect in the future. On the other hand, if some folks felt invisible, they might say "Off the Wall" things, just because it seemed to be the only way to get attention. In other words, maybe there might be a relationship: "frankness" might be linked with anonymity, while popularity might cause extra caution.

Expand full comment

I finally had to write. I have been ruminating over that photo of the corn ear and am hoping that wasn't one of the three you ate. I, being from South Jersey - the true area for which the Garden State is named, have enjoyed a lifetime of eating pure white sweet corn each Summer. Yellow corn is what my middle American (which does include the Minnesota/North Dakota relatives) friends consider farm animal feed. Some who actually raise corn in Illinois didn't even think it was a human food. (They were hoping to capitalize on the biofuel craze.) So I do hope you have had the pleasure of enjoying Jersey Sweet Corn as it's from a state you must certainly almost touch from your balcony. However, I don't recommend driving to get it.

Expand full comment