Althouse: Corn festival.

August 21, 2006

Corn festival.

Am I the only one who's grossed out by the women slathering butter on the corn with their rubber-gloved hands?

16 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Butter or salt on corn: No Thanks. I eat it plain -- it's really THAT GOOD! Sweet corn (and tomatoes) are two reasons to love Summer in Wisconsin.

I've not been to the Corn Fest in about 5 years. If it's over, I guess Middleton's Good Neighbor Fest must be right around the corner.; 8/21/06, 10:06 PM
Blondie said...: I love sweet corn roasted at festivals like this too.

But I agree with Ann a bit. Something about the subject and it's arrangement in the photo is a bit disconcerting ...

I should probably eat more sweet corn since my mind could be considered entering the gutter ...; 8/21/06, 10:16 PM
Palladian said...: Except for the women and the presence of illumination, that photo reminds me of the good old days in the back room of The Cock...

Ahh, memories.

I'm making this up. But it does remind me of a real memory. Once when I was a teenager I remember hearing a woman on a television show utter the line "my idea of the perfect weekend is Mel Gibson and a stick of butter". Ah, the polymorphously perverse ideations engendered in my young mind by that throw-away sitcom line...

Funny how later events would cloud that simple memory- who could have forseen the Jesus movie and the drunken Jewish panic? To think of Mel Gibson sexually after "The Passion of the Christ" was kind of like having sexual thoughts about Savonarola; after the drunk driving arrest, it's like fantasizing about Father Coughlin. I guess it's just good that it was butter and not schmalz!; 8/21/06, 10:43 PM
Troy said...: Between women buttering corn and Palladian's post it's getting cornographic. Where's the talk of big ears, long stalks, and hominy fetishes? Internet corn traffic will increase.; 8/21/06, 11:21 PM
The Mechanical Eye said...: ...you shuck the damn hot ears, deft hands and awkward hands

... that's from the linked post, so its not just Ann, but the writer as well.

Now that I think of it, that bit I just quoted reminds me of some of the spam I get - the body of the e-mail will have what reads like an exerpt from a mangled translation of some foreign-language Harlequin romance novel.

Now where is my corn chowder...; 8/22/06, 1:48 AM
Bissage said...: Grossed out? Not at all. The best tool ever invented is at the end of your arm.

Butter and salt? I'm with MadisonMan. Gives it to us raw and wriggling.

That said, not everyone enjoys corn. Once we had a German exchange student over for a Summer cook out. We offered her corn on the cob. She was disgusted. She said in Germany that was food for pigs.

We kept on chomping away. I’ll bet we all sounded like a bunch of pigs.; 8/22/06, 6:29 AM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: I think I like the floating salt shakers better than the butter babes.

All for hygiene. And I think it's fine.; 8/22/06, 7:15 AM
Bissage said...: Wicked: Your sister-in-law cooks up a “butt load of corn?”

My brother-in-law does the same thing. Except, he does it the morning after.

He makes sure we all notice him coming out of the bathroom. Then, once he has everyone’s attention, he'll say, “Snickers – a fistful of peanuts in every bar!”

He does it every time.

He is 45 years old with an M.D. and an M.B.A.

I am not making this up.; 8/22/06, 8:20 AM
Badger Down Under said...: Nobody's done it yet? Then I shall take the honors. What Ann is grossed out about is the hard pore cornography.; 8/22/06, 8:20 AM
SippicanCottage said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/22/06, 9:07 AM
amba said...: Grossed out (dis)gustatorially or analogically?

(This from someone who could never help hearing double-entendres in, e.g. the publisher's name Hill & Wang.); 8/22/06, 10:02 AM
amba said...: Sigmund says: sometimes an ear of corn is just an ear of corn ...; 8/22/06, 10:04 AM
Vader said...: Any excuse to eat butter.

That said, I prefer to apply it myself, using a buttered slice of bread. The women in the photograph remind me way too much of the cafeteria women at my junior high school. Or high school. Or the two national laboratories I've worked at.

My undergraduate school cafeteria women were generally student employees working off their living expenses, and they were occasionally cute enough that I would not have minded them slathering butter on my cob any time they liked. On the other hand, my graduate school cafeteria employees were men from the local Armenian restaurant. (It's a long story.); 8/22/06, 12:11 PM
Jeff with one 'f' said...: Ann, you shouldn't be disturbed, the women wear the rubber gloves for their own protection!

I'm more disturbed by the men denuding the corn of its natural sheathing!; 8/22/06, 1:06 PM
Omnibabe said...: Those look like heavy-duty rubber gloves, and I'm guessing that one of the reasons they're wearing them is for insulation from the heat of the corn. Not gross. Just practical.; 8/22/06, 2:35 PM
Troy said...: If I were Carson Palmer's center.... well I'd be nervous about a QB who played cornhole and then wanted to take snaps from me.; 8/22/06, 2:58 PM