Fox’s Reparations Month dogwhistles sent me looking for an old Cyril M. Kornbluth story called “Silly Season”, where a series of summertime news oddities turn out to be Trojan horses for an alien invasion. (Although, comforting as it would be to believe otherwise, Rupert and Roger and their paid spokesliars and newspods are all too terribly human in the banality of their evil.) First stop in my search was Wikipedia, which does mention Kornbluth’s story in its Silly Season entry, along with much other information:
In many languages, the name for the silly season references cucumbers (more precisely: gherkins or pickled cucumbers). Komkommertijd in Dutch, Norwegian agurktid, Czech Okurková sezóna, Polish Sezon ogórkowy, Hungarian uborkaszezon and Hebrew עונת המלפפונים (Onat Ha’melafefonim) all mean “cucumber time” or “cucumber season”. The corresponding German term is Sauregurkenzeit (“pickled cucumber season”).
Sour-pickle season! Of course here in America, the summer Silly Season runs from Memorial Day Weekend until Labor Day. But I shall cherish the image of Ross Douthat or Erick Erickson sweatily toiling over a vat of boiling vinegar during the hottest days of the year, busy turning an excess of harmless vegetables into mouth-puckering commodities…
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Yutsano
You are aware of the fact that Alton Brown did a repeat of his pickle show the other night, amirite? The coincidence seems just a bit too apt.
Bill E Pilgrim
“Fair and Balanced” — it’s a cookbook!
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: I read that as Fear and Balanced, which works as well. And, with that, I am outie. Night/morning, all!
2th&nayle
If you had thrown Jonah Goldberg in the mix, you would have captured the “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble; Fire Burn and Caldron Bubble” scene from Macbeth. Mouth-puckering, indeed!
SRW1
Actually, the German language makes a distinction between the period and the silliness practiced in it. The period is indeed called Sauregurkenzeit. As in probably all the other languages that reference cucumbers, the name originates from the fact that during that time many people tended to be on vacation, therefore nothing much happened, and newspapers had a hard time to come up with their daily quota of newsworthy stories to fill their pages. So the readers tended to get stories about giant cucumbers, or other plants, harvested in the vegetable patch of some proud greenfinger (often including a pic of plant and human).
The strategy of using that slow news period to gin up publicity for some silly stuff which during usual times wouldn’t find much attention is called Sommertheater, or if the staged story has aspects of the dramatic, Sommerdrama. If it happens in the political arena, it is called political summer theater.
Almost a shame really, that picture of Douthat or Erickson ‘sweatily toiling over a vat of boiling vinegar’ sounds way more appropriate.
stuckinred
Cajun joke from the Oil Drum
Boudreaux been fish’n down by de bayou all day an he done run outta dem night crawlers. He be bout reddy to leave when he see a snake wit a big frog in his mouf. He know dem big bass fish like frogs, so he decide to steal dat froggie.
Dat snake, he be a cottonmouf water moccasin, so Boudreaux hafta be real careful or he get bit. He sneak up behine dat snake and grab him roun de haid. Dat ole snake don’t lak dat one bit. He squirm and wrap hisself roun Boudreaux’s arm try’n to get hissef free. But Boudreaux, he gotta real good grip on his haid, yeh.
Well, Boudreaux pry dat snake’s mouf open and get de frog and put it in he bait can. Now, Boudreaux know he cain’t let go dat snake or he’s gonna bite him good, but he got him a plan. He reach into de back pocket of he bib overalls and pull out a pint a moonshine likker. He pour some drops into de snake’s mouf. Well, dat snake’s eyeballs roll back in he haid and he body go limp. Wit dat, Boudreaux toss dat snake into de bayou, den he go back to fish’n.
While later Boudreaux feel sumpin tapp’n on he barefoot toe. He look down and dere be dat cottonmouf water moccasin, wid two more frogs.
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN: Their other slogan actually is supposed to be:
“We report you. Decide”.
And thus was Earth undone in the end by the smallest of all organisms: punctuation.
bkny
did you know that dill pickle juice is an amazing and immediate remedy for leg cramps… i sure could have used some about 3a this morning.
in other news. i was just reading the comments about the tasing of justice thomas’ nephew and had no fucking idea about this — hitching posts!?!?:
Also last year, Thomas dissented from a 6-3 decision to ban the practice in Alabama of chaining prisoners to outdoor ‘’hitching posts’’ and abandoning them for hours without food, water, or a chance to use the bathroom. While the majority also called that ‘’cruel and unusual,’’ Thomas said the hitching post served ‘’a legitimate penological purpose,’’ encouraging a prisoner’s ‘’compliance with prison rules while out on work duty.’
2th&nayle
@stuckinred: Good story, stuck! But are you sure it was moonshine likker in that jar? More likely it was that Cajun whiskey, Jacques Danielle.
JGabriel
While we’re talking about “silly season”, it seems apt to recall Molly Ivins’ column on August:
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stuckinred
@2th&nayle: I pulled it off the “Oil Drum” and I think you are right!
2th&nayle
@bkny: I guess Judge Thomas felt like anything one step removed from the “whippin’ post” served a legitimate penological purpose. Sounds like a man that got his ass busted for wettin’ the bed when he was a boy.
2th&nayle
@stuckinred: Thanks for the link to “Oil Drum”, stuck. The diagrams and explaination of what BP is trying to do to plug the well are very informative.
RSR
Of course, you know who else enjoyed Sauregurkenzeit, don’t you?
SiubhanDuinne
@bkny #9: Do you drink the dill pickle juice or rub it on the leg? (Serious question.)
SRW1
@RSR:
At Obersalzberg?
Mark Twain
@Bill E Pilgrim:
FTW!
gocart mozart
The Gherkinocalypse is upon us!
gocart mozart
The Apicklelypse!