ETYMOLOGY
101
The
origin of: donnybrook
“The word donnybrook has been
applied to just about every kind of tumultuous struggle, from
baseball games to political contests. For political contests
in which the politicians are Irish, the label might be especially
apt. Donnybrook, now a part of Dublin, was once a suburb about
a mile and a half from the city’s center. In 1204 King
John granted to the citizens of Dublin a charter to hold at
Donnybrook an annual trading fair as a way of raising funds
for the building and upkeep of the city’s walls. For
the next 651 years it was held in August on a flat green beside
the River Dodder. In addition to horse trading, the fair featured
the selling of trinkets and food. Entertainment took the form
of dancing to pipes and fiddles and dramatic performances
by strolling bands of players.
“Donnybrook
Fair became legendary for the vast quantities of liquor consumed.
The fair also became locally infamous for the number of hasty
marriages performed the week after the fair. But perhaps its
best-known claim to fame was the frequent eruption of brawling.
The fighting, which often involved the wielding of shillelaghs[*],
was said by witnesses to be all in good fun. One nineteenth-century
German visitor observed that for all the tumult, the general
scene was one of genuine merriment and glee. Eventually Donnybrook
Fair’s reputation was its undoing. From the 1790s there
were campaigns against the drunken brawl that the fair had
become. The fair met its demise in 1855. By that time, however,
the name Donnybrook had acquired
a generic sense that would accord it an enduring place in
the language.”
Source: The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories
* A shillelagh (pronounced
shuh-LAY-lee) is a Gaelic war club made of Irish oak or blackthorn
saplings. These are the only two woods used to make the club
because, as it is said, they are the only ones hard enough
to crack an Irish skull. The shillelagh is typically between
20 and 24 inches in length, and was (and still is) carried
as a defense against muggers and thieves.
A traditional Irish shillelagh
NEAT-O
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOSTESS TWINKIE
It’s
not every day that one reads about Twinkies, so consider yourself
lucky. The popular golden sponge cakes were first developed
in 1930, during the Depression, when inexpensive snacks were
harder to come by. James A. Dewar, manager of the Schiller
Park, Illinois, Hostess Bakery, came up with the Twinkie idea
when he noticed that the machines used to make Hostess’
Little Shortbread Fingers sat idle
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outside
of the summer months. The Shortbread Fingers, which contained
strawberries, were only made during strawberry season—which,
depending on the region, varied from a few weeks to a few
months during the summer.
Dewar decided to
utilize the pans during their down period. He filled them
with a golden sponge cake, baked them, and then added a banana
cream filling (yes, Twinkies were originally made with banana
cream!). After the first few batches came out, Dewar decided
to show his creation to his bosses. En route, Dewar passed
a billboard for the Twinkle Toe Shoe Company, and it inspired
him to come up with the name “Twinkies.”
The snack was an
instant success. Twinkies ballooned in popularity during the
1950s, when Hostess sponsored the “Howdy Doody”
show, and were a popular staple in 1960s bomb shelters (it
was said that Twinkies stayed “fresh forever”).
Today, Twinkies are Hostess’ best-selling snack—over
500 million are sold every year.
But wait! Today’s
Twinkies are filled with vanilla cream, not banana cream.
What gives? The switch to vanilla came during World War II,
when German U-boats allegedly sank a bunch of banana boats
in the Caribbean in 1942, causing a temporary banana shortage.
The vanilla cream was so popular that Hostess never switched
back.
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