Ms. CRANKY'S HAT, well, one of them

Ms. CRANKY'S HAT, well, one of them

Friday, October 14, 2011

a Ms. CRANKY short but not sweet

Please, tell Ms. CRANKY what she wants to hear.  Please tell her that it isn't true, that she's imagining it, that maybe she dreamed it. 

Please, please tell Ms. CRANKY that there is not an ad on national mainstream TV advertising deodorant with a man jumping under his wife's or girlfriend's arms as she dances.   Please tell me I'm wrong.  

Hellppppp!!!???

Ms. CRANKY
Friday, October 14, 2011

Monday, October 3, 2011

Ms. CRANKY ON WORD OVERUSE ON TV, PART TWO; THIS TIME ON HER BELOVED COOKING SHOWS

Ms. Cranky loves cooking shows but she waits for house-sitting jobs to see her favorites as she doesn’t have cable on her TV.  If she did, she’d be watching Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa on the Food Channel every day; Cranky loves Ina but hasn’t seen her show in over a year.  But, Ms. Cranky does get to see Lidia’s Italy and her favorite people from America’s Test Kitchen as they’re on regular PBS TV that everybody gets. Oh, and Simply Ming, umm, Ming.  
But, Cranky finds that some words on food shows are very overused at times.  Once she actually counted to see how many times a certain word was repeated on a PBS show and the same word was used eleven times --- in just 30 minutes.
Some of the words Ms. Cranky finds overused although very explainable in their use are --- “sweating the onions”. At first, when Ms. Cranky heard ‘sweating the onions’, she thought it a good and valid description but at this point, the overused term is getting a little sweat-inducing.  “Melding” is a beautiful word, meld too and Ms. Cranky loves her words but sometimes she feels like melded to death after a cooking show.  Okay, Cranky admits it’s a nice thought to imagine all these little chopped up (or, ‘diced', more likely) vegetables getting all cozy with each other and having their tastes flop together, it’s a lovely image but after hearing the word meld over and over on the same ½ hour show, you can get downright de-sensitized.
But, the winner and still champ for an over-used word on a cooking show is “caramelized”.  Again, a lovely word, a wonderful, true word that you can visualize so well but eleven times in one short show is a bit overwhelming, especially on a Sunday which is supposed to be a day of rest!  Ms. Cranky loves and applauds the word ‘caramelize’ as she loves and applauds caramels themselves (umm).  But, enough already --- get a Thesaurus, now there’s a word, try something new.
Ouii, Ms. Cranky has to go now.  She has to wash her vegetables to prepare them for dinner.  And, dry out her most gorgeous hot peppers, 10 for $1 at the Farmer’s Market --- so pretty, so vibrantly red.   Cranky isn’t planning to sweat or meld or caramelize anything tonight, well, maybe just a teeny little melding when the glorious cabbage leaves meet the onions and are sprinkled with bright carrot shreds --- just a onetime use of the word --- but, shhh, don’t tell anybody!

Ms. Cranky hopes you have a great day and cook away.  She’ll be thinking of you but, remember, to watch your language.  You’re not only what you eat, you’re what you say about it.

Thanks for stopping by, sorry the weather’s still so cold and gloomy.  Bundle up.
Ms. Cranky, signing off now ---
Monday, October (already) 3, 2011