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 A languid goat

In this blogposting…
* The Languid Goat
* Shortcake
Never say die…

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THE LANGUID GOAT
Every language on Earth seems to have its own way of looking at the metaphorical world - of teaching its speakers moral lessons, via proverbs and similes. 

Sometimes, though, the comparisons drawn are peculiarly colourful and inventive - occasionally to the extent of obscuring the lessons we’re meant to draw.  One of my favourites in English is ‘fine words butter no parsnips’.  I love that.  And I’ve never been able to fathom ‘a wink is as good as a nod to a blind horse’.

To illustrate my point, here are some proverbs from foreign lands that I started gathering when we covered this subject on the Blue Bus.

There’s wisdom in here….somewhere.

* The languid goat is always thin.
* Empty gossip jumps with one leg.
* Dry pants catch no fish.
* After being struck on the head with an axe, it is a positive pleasure to be beaten about the body with a wooden club.
* Mistakes aren’t haystacks; if they were, there’d be more fat ponies.
* The tongue is soft and constantly remains in; the teeth are hard and fall out.
* If you throw cakes at a man, he will throw cakes at you.
* He who is tempted today by a cucumber will be tempted tomorrow by a goat.
* Kiss the hand you cannot bite.
* The ground is always frozen for lazy pigs.
* Lying a little and stealing a little will get you nicely through the world.
* Beware of men with beards and women with beards.
* Do not blow in a bear’s ear.

There are proverbs there from China, India, Russia, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, the USA, France, Holland and Italy - make of them what you will.

Another languid goat

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SHORTCAKE
Some months ago, in a fit of culinary fervour, I asked you to send me any recipes you have that would be suitable for a cackhanded novice like me.  So here we go again….

This time, though, I’m after a recipe for one of my favourite little luxuries - shortcake (or ‘shortbread’, as some people call it).

I have several recipe books here at home, and have also tried methods I found on the internet.  So far, none has worked.  A couple have been disastrous.

It seems, from my investigations, that shortcake is notoriously difficult to get right - which is surprising for a comestible with only three, very basic, ingredients.  This is reflected in the recipes I’ve found, which call for wildly varying amounts of butter, sugar and flour - with the occasional addition of cornflour and/or ground rice - and huge variations in cooking time, from 40 minutes in a cool oven to 15 minutes in a hot one.

Over to you, then.

If you have a shortcake recipe that always - or even usually - works for you, please send it to me in either of the usual ways.

And do it soon.  If you don’t, you’ll be condemning me to producing shortcake you could either build a wall with or use as window-putty or modelling clay.

Thankyou.

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CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or email me:  truckshunters@googlemail.com