Sunday, June 22, 2008

Word Shape Onomatopoeia

rhinoceros is one of the first words you learn to associate with R.

rhino exhibits the phenomenon when the h (which I called a rhino h) pops up above the x line to create a horn, just like rhinos have. So it's like onomatopoeia (where a word sounds like what it is: bang, meow, etc) but visual instead of aural.

Anyone have another example of this phenomena?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Festival of the Arts: Meat on a Stick

Pretty much every year since I was very small, I have gone to downtown Grand Rapids for the annual festival of the arts. Basically, lots of food booths, several performance stages, art tents, and awesome kids activities. In the old days, the Christian School Association had a food booth which had like strawberry tarts and pigs in the blanket and was Dutch themed. The funny part was that it was only open on Friday and Saturday, and then on Sunday it was taken over by one of the local synagogues. I always thought that was the most interesting thing (I also used to think that it was Jewish people who worked at Meijer on Sundays).

There is one thing I have to get every year, Saigon Sate. Barbecued pork on a skewer. It's a flavor I need to experience at least once a year, every year.

This year I got my Saigon Sate, it was a bit fatty, but still delicious. I've also taken to getting Souvlaki, which is basically just Greek meat on a stick. I think the booth at Festival uses beef for theirs, but the interesting thing is they serve it on a stick on a bun. There are two camps on what the bun is for. The first is that the bun is simply an edible plate for your delicious meat on a stick. The other says that you should removed the stick and eat it as a sort of sandwich. I think I'm in the first camp.