Page 6 - Boca ViewPointe - May '23

Page 6, Viewpointe May 2023
Book Review

Cuisine, Philosophy, And the word for dog is cognate for kunikos, which was how
Cynic gained its appellation. He spanned the time of
Linguistics Socrates, his student Plato, who said of him that he was
“madder than Socrates.” And Plato’s student Aristotle
Judith Tschann. Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day, The as well as Aristotle’s student Alexander the Great. In
Delightful History of Food Language. New York: one story, perhaps apocryphal, Alexander addressed
Voracious/Little Brown. 2023. Diogenes, “I am Alexander, the Great King,” which
How to Say No, Diogenes and the Cynics. An Ancient provoked the comeuppance, “I am Diogenes, the dog.”
Guide to the Art of Cynicism. Selected, Translated, M.D. Usher offers a rich collection of Dialogues,
and Introduced by M.D. Usher. Princeton: Princeton Orations, and Essays (in Greek with his translations)
University Press, 2022. composed at the time of Diogenes’s life and a millennium
“Food for thought,” an idiom derived from the time afterwards celebrating the philosopher’s wisdom and
of the French Revolution. peculiarities. He was something of a performance artist
“I fawn on those who give, I bark at those who don’t, and the stories associated with him added to his reputation
and I bite scoundrels.” Diogenes of Sinope. apparently sources of intrinsic joy, Banana a loan word for eccentricity, his rejection of a change of clothes before
from Arab and Turkish. Then there are Toponyms, going to sleep, his vegetarianism, his embracing the life
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers named after place, Vichyssoise, Champagne, Sardines, of homelessness. According to one text, he attended the
Lima beans, Darjeeling tea; and Eponyms named after Isthmian Games and chided the spectators and athletes
It’s about belly laughs, people, from the Earl of Sandwich who is credited with for their celebrations of physical prowess, noting how
the many ways that our conceiving placing meat between two slices of bread ridiculous it would be if ants would honor the ones who
bellies laugh. When we so he could better concentrate upon his propensity for could run the fastest. Once, he auctioned himself as a
are satiated with food, or gambling, and the Reuben derived from a grocer in slave to Xeniades, the wealthy Corinthian, who in turn put
when a cynic philosopher Kansas. Cappuccino derived from the color of the monk’s him in charge of his household and praised his efficiency.
emits a guffaw, ridiculing habit cocoa blended with the white froth. And desserts His example influenced the likes of the Romans, Cicero,
another ’s naiveté or which ambiguously refers to clearing the table on the Seneca, and Lucian and continued centuries after his
stolidness, for example. one hand and getting your just, delightful rewards at death at age ninety. These essays added to the legends
The physiological and meal’s end. During my career, I was required to study about his life and the ancient art of cynicism.
intellectual joy that we the history of the English language and then teach it over Professor Usher makes the case in the final chapter
experience from the mundane and the sublime. Starting many semesters and appreciate its diversity, which I am suggesting the influence of the Cynics upon Christianity.
with her punning title, Professor Judith Tschann offers a reminded of while composing this Review. Both the revilement of wealth, the choice of frugality and
survey of the history of food rendered through the play The Cynic Diogenes of Sinope (412-323 B.C.E.) poverty, nothing in excess and the monastery itself seems
on the title Romaine (lettuce and civilization); for the did not relish food as much as he did conversation and to reflect the utopian ideal, “according to the Gospel’s
Egyptians tall standing Romaine was perceived as a proud improving the character of his audience and devouring rules,” inferred, if not taught by Diogenes. He also had
phallus, for the Romans, a delicacy. But it all boils down them with his passion for eccentricity. Born and raised a great influence on the American Transcendentalists of
to linguistics, a fancy word for language. in Sinope, his father was a successful banker who was the nineteenth century, like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry
Her Romaine is divided into sections of the three caught in some kind of scandal, which brought about loss David Thoreau, even Herman Melville and perhaps Emily
meals of the day; breakfast (the first meal after the night’s of family status, and the son’s exile and a peripatetic life Dickinson where cynicism indeed underlies and animates
fast), lunch and dinner, native languages, etymologies, in Athens, Corinth and other Greek isles. He identified their writings.
neologisms (hot dog, cherries jubilee) loan words and himself as a Cosmopolite, a citizen not of one nation but
borrowed words, and the evolution of words (bread and of the world who chose to live the simplest possible life, Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, a resident of La Paz, is an
alcohol from 10,000 years ago) . A smorgasbord about following nature and bleating no. He was nicknamed the Emeritus Professor of English. rmeyers@esu.edu. 
the culture of food and the delights of language that has dog, and statues of him were invariably depicted with
connected humanity through mutual interest and trade a dog at his side; Professor Usher points out that kuon
in the best possible ways. The language of food, you
will discover, draws upon virtually every culture and
civilization from the Neolithic to the Aboriginal, to the The Aker Kasten
Greek, Roman, Arab, Chinese, Yiddish. Our English
language derives from some four dozen languages that
have contributed to the linguistics of food. Tacos from Family lives in
Spain, barbecue from Caribbean Arawaken language,
eggs borrowed from appearance of eyes, coffee from this community…
medieval Arabic and tea from Chinese. Frui, relating
to pleasure, gives us the cognates fruit and frugal, both and loves this
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