However, "stob" is Scottish for broken stick or stump. Sounds similar, but maybe CL can shed some light on whether or not they are cognates. Track down the family tree of that branch of the language, as it were.
These are my bamboo stobs from last year - they are the sprouts of giant Japanese bamboo that I planted in my backyard - in theory they will eventually grow to 60 feet tall.
I am enjoying A Tramp Abroad - Twain's humor holds up even after all these years. I like his stories from the golden age of Alpinism, and it's almost enough to make me want to go back to Switzerland just to see the Matterhorn. I saw Mont Blanc when I was there in 1992, and it is pretty impressive, but the Matterhorn has a very different shape and a lot of lore. Inspired by Twain I have been reading the history of mountain climbing in the Alps. In years past have read a bit about other mountains, like In the Hall of the Mountain King about McKinley and some books about the Himalayas but years ago I gave up the idea of doing any technical climbing. Heck, even hiking would be a chore these days, but I still enjoy the idea of being in the mountains.
That's the cover of Twain's book, showing him with his gear, including his Alpenstock, which was a precursor of a climbing ax. So besides enjoying the humor I am also learning stuff - words, and stuff like that.
We are getting a bit of winter weather here now, but I am almost certain that no glaciers will form in the immediate future. For that I am thankful, as I have no ice at hand.
12 comments:
Something that wouldn't grow where I live. I can hardly wait for green grass.
The woman I first heard use that word is from Alabama, so there you go. She comes from a family that could hardly be called either redneck or hillbilly - sure they were scoundrels and scofflaws among other things, but they were high society types. She did her research on Ancestry.com and 23andMe and found a long lost cousin. Long lost due to some shenanigans and chicanery but found now due to technology - and she is really enjoying having some family for the first time in her life.
What I was looking for was a connection between the Scottish stob and the German stabe. Some things may be lost in the mists of time, I reckon.
I thought you wrote entomology bugs you.
They sell those giant bamboo sprouts in the Asian markets. For food. I bought some one time and discovered they don't last in the crisper.
The mountains, they beckon.
I used to spend a lot of time in the Sierras, and could bore you to tears with my stories about my hikes there and my many bike rides in the Cascades. I really am still strongly drawn to those high places, but somehow I ended up in the Southeast.
I did ride my bicycle up the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi, Mt. Mitchell, and as impressive a mountain as it is, at 6,684 feet it is way shorter than the Rockies, for example, or Mt. Whitney, which was 14,494 when a coworker walked up it, but is now listed as 14,505, due to continued uplift.
As for giant bamboo shoots - stop by, Chip - I cut them down every year. I had no idea they were edible, and if you timed it right you could make out like a bandit.
If you've recently reread "A Tramp Abroad" you might recognize where I got the underlying structure for my ""The Awful Chemical Language." Line them up side-by-side. ;)
I've never heard of a "stob." Buchstabe doesn't mean "alphabet" so much as "letter" or "character." I think of "alphabet" as a collective noun referring to all of the letters. Die Buchstaben, is the whole alphabet, I guess.
My Duden, Volume 7, (German Etymology) sheds some light on Buchstabe. Legend has it that there was a beech stave carved with runes. The beech tree has some god-like character (pun intended) in Europe. It's a common tree there. Diana's sacred woods near Nemi had beech trees according to Frazer's "The Golden Bough." Buchenwald means beech forest in German.
Those bamboo shoots are annoying. Bamboo propagates using rhizomes, just like grass does. I transplanted bamboo to line a fence in our backyard back in Oceanside, It looked beautiful against the fence, but the rhizomes spread across the lawn. I didn’t mind so much when I mowed because they cut easily. But when I went to xeriscape some of our yard, the damn bamboo poked through the DG I put down. I finally had to tear out all the rhizomes to eradicate. That practically ruined the lawn.
Mountain climbing in the Alps....
...perhaps you'd enjoy some early German cinema from Arnold Fanck. BTW, he "discovered" Leni Riefenstahl.
Years ago, in Sunnyvale (Bartlett Straße), I was neighbors with one of Fanck's descendants. I didn't know about Fanck at the time but I did know Riefenstahl's work being a good little germaphile. She schooled me. She even had what wold be considered collector's memorabilia.
P.S.: Whoever recommended "Babylon Berlin" (I think it was here). Thank you, thank you!
Bamboo, the stobs that keep on giving.
@ Chicklit
Re: Bamboo
Plant the bamboo inside of containment that goes at least 2 to 3 ft deep in the soil. It keeps the runners from escaping. Part of a round metal tube, like those that go in a culvert under a road. Or if you want a long or irregular spot some old metal roofing. You will probably want to double up on that application as it will eventually decay and your bamboo will go wild again. (Personally, I wouldn't take the chance and forget about the bamboo. Plus too much work IMO)
Of course, given that that event may be many years in the future......it will be somebody else's problem :-)
When I moved into my current house I decided to plant bamboo. I wanted something to create a screen along the back fence line, did my research and thought "I can contain this stuff".
I rented a trencher, dug a racetrack shaped trench 18" deep, 150' long and about 8' wide. Installed "bamboo barrier" in said trench, back filled, then I ordered my giant bamboo, planted it, and sat back and waited.
Bamboo rhizomes are plotting. All the time, they are out there, thinking, plotting, planning, and eventually, they make their move. Good thing is they only do that in early Spring. They send up shoots, spread like wildfire and go crazy.
They used my trench as a super highway - path of least resistance. They tunneled under it like they were in a WWII movie. They sprout up all over the danged place - in my yard, my neighbors' yards and eventually, I assume, they will take over the world.
In my yard I cut them off at ground level, use a tool I fabricated to stab a hole in the joint below ground level, then pour in extra-strength Roundup. That, combined with mowing, as mentioned above, does the trick.
Also, as mentioned above, eventually it becomes someone else's problem. I just want to someday be able to harvest some giant bamboo - how cool would that be? Very, that's how cool.
CL - isn't one of Arnold Franck's movies on the marquee in Inglorious Basterds? Seems to me I read up on him and his work. White Hell of Pitz Palu, I think. Maybe I should rewatch that movie and see if I got that right.
"Bartlett Straße" - good one! I miss those sunny days in Sunnyvale. I recently discovered a communication from the ex-wife of my friend who lived on the corner there - the bend where the street turned 90 degrees - she said that she still has the furniture that I built and which she bought from me back in '84. That was gratifying. Ah, the before times...
I'm glad the NCDOT planted kudzu for you, so you don't have to.
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