Word of the Year and other notables from the newspaper

Gene, my husband, loves to read and really likes to get a newspaper to peruse every day. There were some days in Canada a few years ago when we were so far out in the country that the paper would come a day late about noon. He would have to buy it and read it the next morning with coffee, making it two days late. Ahhhh.

In Silver City this past summer he would get the daily Albuquerque Journal. It was published in Albuquerque in the afternoon for the next day, so it was like reading a day old paper as well, especially any breaking news or late sports. Here he reads the Austin American-Statesman for a daily read. We also get the Bastrop Advertiser, twice a week.

I just got an e-mail from him (all the way across the room) that I would like to share with you:

"Locavore has been named the 2007 word of the year by The New Oxford American Dictionary. I somehow missed it and if you are like me and missed it as I suspect you might have, I will tell you what it means. It is a word for people who eat only food grown locally (usually in a 100-mile to 150-mile radius). This invaluable information was Food and Life section of the AAS yesterday.

Two more interesting things I learned in the same paper:

1. The Green Bean Casserole was developed by The Campbell Soup Company in 1950, I was only 9 years old when it was developed.

2. In Judeo-Christian tradition, graves are usually aligned on an east-west orientation, with the feet facing east, which would allow the dead to rise on Judgment Day to face God. Rayne, LA, claims to have the only cemetery in the Judeo-Christian world in which the graves have a north-south orientation. The city does not know exactly why it happened but says the most likely reason is a mistake by a gravedigger. The cemetery is included in "Ripley's Believe it Or Not!"

So there you are then.

Gene"

I would like to share Leslie's answer as well:

"So what you’re saying is, if I die because I don’t stick to the locavore eating pattern, and have funyuns on my green bean casserole, when I’m buried in Rayne, in a north-south orientation, I will not see God, but I will make it into Ripley’s?

Guess what’s on the menu…

Hope you guys have a delicious Thanksgiving!

Leslie"