Before sunrise

Today I woke up freakishly early and decided to go right into work. In the back of my head, I remembered that the earlier shuttled headed in at 7:15, so I made sure I was at the corner five minutes before that. No one was there, so I figured I'd missed it. Turns out it was there at 7:00 a.m., so I don't know if I'm remembering the old schedule or simply confused. I would've checked before I left, but we have the computer unplugged while that room gets painted. (Of course, had the computer been on, I would've just pissed away the extra hour anyway.)

I was looking forward to seeing the sun rise over the Lake, but as so often that happened to be the one corner of the sky that was clouded over. Then I was looking forward to breakfast, but Dixie Kitchen was closed and I walked to Golden Olympic instead. Honestly, I don't know how I've preserved a positive impression of that place for so long. Sure it's only a diner, but they managed to overcook both the bacon and the eggs. Now I realise I can't recall a single good meal there, only a series of barely adequate ones--charred pork chops, mouth-searing pasticchio scorching hot from the microwave, etc.

And nothing prepared me for the sticker shock on the "fresh-squeezed orange juice". $4.55. Are you kidding me? Do hotels even charge that much? Adding insult, the waitress asked me "Isn't that orange juice good" and civility compelled me to agree even though what I really wanted to say was, "Actually it's mediocre. I've had much better from a carton." Not to mention the fact that I could've gotten a whole freakin' gallon of Tropicana at that price.

At least the sun was out by the time I left. Yesterday, it turned all wintry here. When I stepped out of the bus in front of the Loyola station last evening, I suddenly had a vision of snow crunching underfoot and a bell-ringer standing outside the exit while tinsel glittered red and green around the Dunkin Donuts. But even though it was just above freezing this morning, I only got the sensation of a very cold fall day.

आज का शब्द aaj kaa shabd / ਅੱਜ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ ajj daa shabad

New feature, everyone! wwidsith proposed that I add Hindi to my list of Words of the Day, but the problem there is that my Hindi is simply too basic and my lexicographical resources too insufficient to do that without dumbing down the rest of the vocabulary.

Today's word is कद्दू/ਕੱਦੂ kaddoo which means "gourd" or "pumpkin". To specify the latter, Panjabi uses the modified terms ਹਲਵਾ ਕੱਦੂ halvaa kaddoo "halwa gourd" and ਮਿੱਠਾ ਕੱਦੂ siTTa kaddoo "sugar gourd". An alternative word is लौकी/ਲੌਕੀ ~ ਲਉਕੀ laukee and I couldn't tell you what the difference in usage is. The whole field is more confusing than I realised, since pumpkins are not a single species of squash, as I previously thought, but cultivars from at least four different ones: Cucurbita pepo, mixta, maxima, and moschata. In Panjabi at least, some of these also have specific names, e.g. ਮਿਠਾ ਕੱਦੂ miTaa kaddoo ("sweet") or ਵੱਡਾ ਕੱਦੂ vaDDaa kaddoo ("big") for C. maxima; ਸਫ਼ੈਦ ਕੱਦੂ safaid kaddoo ("white") for C. pepo, etc.

ETA: So, mollpeartree, any film songs that talk about gourds? A search on "Bollywood kaddoo" brought up this quote from Shabana Azmi (on her role in the BBC2 production Banglatown Banquet): "I play a strange kind of woman with a thing for growing kaddoo in my small balcony."

FETA: Wait, a further search turned up baigan bhindi kaddoo shaljam khaate hain dilwaale ("Those with heart are eating eggplant, okra, squash, turnip") from the 1950 film Baksheesh.

Name of the day

Góor gi Usmaan Géy