That, at least in this specific case, is not an obscene phrase. Just a double entendre that has intended shock value.
(For the non-native English speakers, ‘beaver’, in American slang, may refer to female genitalia. And, don’t ask. I have no idea why. And for the Native Americans. No, that’s the wrong choice of words. For the people that have only spoken American English all of their lives, I hope it is no surprise that in other flavors of English, that there are some surprising slang words. Most people see the humor in it, but it can be rather embarrassing in the wrong situation. Probably the first one that I became aware of, is the British expression, ‘Knock me up in the morning.’ Americans would say, ‘Give me a wake-up call in the morning.’ And, to have a beautiful British woman, say, to a naïve American man. ‘Bob. Thanks for the drink. This is been a fascinating conversation, but I want to go to bed. Why don’t you knock me up in the morning?’ Might be miss understood by Bob. Hopefully the police officer that Bob will meet very soon, is more worldly. But, many perfectly innocent words, like beaver, pussy, pants, fanny, Willy, knocked up, and so on, have alternative meanings. And given the human condition, they mean something that you might not want your boss to hear you saying.)
But, back to the original message. I just got this in an email.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/02/vanilla-flavored-processed-foods.aspx
There is usually a summary at the upper right of Dr. Mercola’s articles. Be careful not to get on Dr. Macola’s email list, unless you are sure you want to. I enjoy his prolific articles often enough to make it worth my while. But, he is certainly in the business of selling things. He may overload you.
And, as I strongly encourage EVERYONE to do before telling all their friends some sensational bit of news they saw on the Internet. I did a Google search for castorium and found a lot of confirmation for the basic idea of Dr. Macola’s article. Here is just one of many:
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/castoreum.asp
This gets back to my recent post about: I am old-fashioned enough, to think that it is important to know what you are buying. Some countries and cultures, take more of an anarchist view. “If I am smart enough to trick you, that is your problem, not mine. It just shows that I am a really smart dude.”
Unfortunately, not enough of those people, eat antifreeze laced baby food and kindly remove themselves from the gene pool at an early age. No system is perfect, I guess.
Many years ago there was a television commercial in the United States, where a young woman in a very large college classroom, was beginning to answer the professors question. She started out with something like, “Well, I assume there is still product in the pipeline…”
When the professor very arrogantly and abrasively said, “Never assume anything!” And then proceeded to tell the class what an idiot she was.
I disagree very strongly. Assumptions are extremely useful when they are correct. We do it all the time. And it usually helps us tremendously. However, one must be very careful what they assume. And clearly, a certain amount of suspicion, seems to be necessary for our continued survival.
I would like to be able to assume, that what it says on a package of food, is true. There will always be controversy. As an example: Is fat good for you? How much fat? Which exact kind of fat? What if you combine it with XYZ? And so on. But, if the baby food does not list antifreeze on the list of ingredients, then I want to be confident that there is no more than a microscopic amount of antifreeze in it.
Nothing is ever totally pure. Someone decided that when Caesar supposedly said those famous words, “Et tu Brute?” That, statistically, they could show that of those particular air molecules exhaled, while saying that very short phrase, one or more of them, is being inhaled by us, with each breath.
Feel free to roll your eyes and be skeptical. I am. But, I’ve seen the mathematical proof. (And, it makes assumptions. That are probably wrong.)
The only reason I mention it now is because it is essentially impossible to have something that is perfectly pure. But, I believe it quite reasonable to require that food products be safe to eat and to correctly tell you what the vast majority of the contents are.
Another assumption that I’m making, is that most of you, would prefer not to eat that kind of beaver, at any meal.
But, as your sexual preferences and your idea of recreation. As long as you work it out between consenting adults, I have no problem.
Dave (Who tries to be very careful in his assumptions. But, has learning experiences, every single day of his life.)
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