14 May, 2020 - Pert Near & Moroccan Textiles

Dear, Mom -

I don't know that I would classify today as 'eventful', but I did learn a few things.

For instance, today when I was talking with my client Bob (also a friend of yours from Kenton House), I used the phrase 'pert near'. Since Bob and I find language to be interesting, we looked up the origin of the term. The first thing I learned is that it is slang. I kind of figured as much, but was more interested in the root word for 'pert'. Well, check this out. "Pert near" is said to be a phrase first used in South Dakota! Can you believe it? No wonder I heard it when I was younger. I bet you used to say it since that is where you are from originally. So, 'pert' is actually short for 'pretty'. It is obvious once you put the accents of the immigrants behind it. It would have been pronounced more like 'purty'.  This is the official bit of information I read:

In South Dakota, saying something is close by or pretty near is too boring, so they say “pert’near.” It’s a versatile word that can be used for distances or as a synonym for almost. As in, “This delicious kuchen is pert’near done cooking in the oven.”

Now, I found this interesting to say the least mainly because I really had never thought about it before. Then when the 'kuchen' was added into the example, I had one more thing I had to look up. Have you every heard of a kuchen pie before? I had not. Look at this:--------------------→

The name of South Dakota’s state dessert, kuchen, means “cake” in German, but its crust and creamy fruit and custard filling make it more like a tart or fruit pie. The basic recipe for kuchen can be customized with a variety of fillings from peach or rhubarb to pineapple or chocolate chips. I am totally going to make this and bring you some. I will make it a blend of South Dakota and Oregon by making it with blackberries! Mmm-mmm.

It was raining pretty hard today, so after a quick walk, Bob and I sat down to do some world trivia. I asked him what is a country that you would like to know the main export of? He didn't even hesitate and said, "Morocco". He then said he thinks it is cotton. Well, he was right in that it is textiles and cotton is a major crop there. Bob used to work in Africa through the college he taught at via the United States government. He helped to learn languages that could then be introduced to the government for negotiating. He spent awhile there with various tribes. I believe he mainly worked in the Republic of Congo, but he did have to travel quite a bit around the continent, therefore meeting many different populations of  indigenous languages.

This is Pier Park. It is walking distance from my house and where I take Elsa on pert near a daily basis (see what I did there?). She loves to zig zag around the trees, sniffing, and charging me in a playful way. Like in the following picture. She is in a full on run:

Today as we walked back towards home, I came across a hole in the ground that had been filled up with the pages of a book. These are the things I love to come across randomly and take pictures of. Once, when I was taking pictures of hobo monikers on a train off of Lombard Ave., I stumbled over a book that had most likely been thrown out of a car. The page that it was open to had a line that I focused on and thought it made more a great photo:

(This is a picture of the picture.)

"Of course, it doesn't make any difference that you are just a dishwasher. I love you for your personality, not your job." 

We've had that framed and hanging in the kitchen for a while now. The pages I found today aren't quite as interesting, but I still think it made for a nice picture, especially paired with the above one:

Well, that's about as interesting as it got today, but I guess we've all come away learning about things that are near and pie cake. Ha. Learning is fun!

I love you very much, Mom. I hope we can talk on the video chat tomorrow at some point. My work schedule is a little sporadic, but I can make it work! Have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day!

Your Daughter, Sal💗