Friday, November 18, 2005

Potpourri is French for "Rutabaga"

Sven from the Midwest rings in:

I am very happy the rutabaga is finally getting some attention, especially as the lead story on what promises to be the hippest new blog in Washington DC. But I am a bit disgruntled that the rutabaga, a vegetable I identify with my Swedish upbringing in Minnesota, is being expropriated by an Irishman in Oregon named Obie MacAroon III, "ARSI President for Life." This is clearly a hoax. I would just like this blog's readers to be aware that Forest Grove, Oregon does not have a festival anything like that of Cumberland, Wisconsin, the true Rutabaga Capital of the US.

Update: Sven provided the following information separately:
Swedish dialectal rotabagge : rot, root (from Old Norse rt. See wrd- in Indo-European Roots) + bagge, bag (from Old Norse baggi).

That clears everything up.

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