196, 197, 198

Saturday I learned the etymology of the word "lollygag," because it is a funny word. Etymonline.com says "dawdle, dally," 1862, lallygag, Amer.Eng., perhaps from dial. lolly "tongue" + gag "deceive, trick." The Word Detective has this to say:

Unfortunately, the origin of "lollygag" is unknown, but there are clues from which we may, perhaps, be able to extrapolate the roots of "lollygag." ("Extrapolate" in this context, by the way, is a fancy word for "guess.")

First up in the batting order of possible "lollygag" clues is "loll," which is a very old word originally meaning "to droop or dangle." We use "loll" today to mean to relax or pass time idly, the sort of behavior that vacations are designed to encourage. There seems to be a plausible connection between this "utterly relaxed" meaning of "loll" and the "wasting time" sense of "lollygag."

Another bit of evidence might be found in the fact that "to loll" also means to let your tongue hang out, and that "lolly" is an English slang term for tongue (quite possibly the source of the name of our friend the lollipop, by the way). Perhaps "lollygagging" arose from the perception that lazy lollygaggers were adept at exercising only one muscle -- their tongues.

Sunday I learned about the Waffle House. How did I learn that? BY GOING THERE. Oh yes, I am a Waffle House virgin no longer. Despite scary numbers of flies and the possibility of getting a breakfast meal completely covered in cheese, I have to say that my food (pecan waffle and a side of bacon) was actually super good. I love waffles and I love pecans. I want all my waffles to have pecans from now on. Um, as for a specific learning, I learned that you pay up at the register and not at your table. That was a funny night. Nice meeting you, Waffle House.

Today I learned about sushi. All I did really was read the article on Wikipedia, but it had a lot of information in it. I learned about the different types, like nigiri-zushi (the blob of rice with a piece of fish sitting on tip of it) versus maki-zushi (rolled sushi). I learned about some things that can go in sushi such as "gobo" which is a type of vegetable and "masago" which is a type of fish egg. I actually do not eat sushi mostly because of the different vegetables like cucumber and raw carrot that are always showing up in there. There is almost no raw vegetable that I like, and cucumber is especially heinous. Other than that it all sounds pretty good.