May 23, 2019

I'm late to the Ocasio-Cortez cauliflower story.

Has anyone made a joke yet combining the jokey nickname "Occasional Cortex" and the fact that cauliflower looks like a brain?



Because I'm don't want to put time into joke-writing if it's been done.

(Here's the Washington Examiner piece on AOC and cauliflower. It's from 3 days ago. 3-day-old cauliflower is too old for me. Frankly, 1-day-old cauliflower is too old for me. And I'm white.)

65 comments:

Unknown said...

Sandy Occludio Cauliflower

rhhardin said...

Cauliflower tends to develop dark spots pretty quickly, if you're buying a large salad wheel for several days' consumption. Broccoli might do the same thing but you can't see it.

Sally327 said...

I think that joke seems a bit sophisticated (erudite?) so no, probably no one has done it already.

Sure, yucca is tasty but not keto-friendly, which I feel AOC is not being sensitive to keto dieters and should be reprimanded for that. We keto folk face a lot of discrimination, temptation to eat carbs is constantly being put in our way, and AOC is now contributing to that. I'm sure unwittingly but her good intentions are irrelevant.

Tommy Duncan said...

Can someone explain the "colonial" aspect of this for me?

Hagar said...

Yucca is also known as "soap weed." The western (way west from da Bronx) Indians made shampoo from it.

TrespassersW said...

How can anybody listen to what she actually says and think that she's smart?

AOC illustrates the Dunning-Kruger effect in spades. (Hillary, too, for that matter.) Is there a label for the cognitive error of thinking someone else is smarter than they have demonstrated themselves to be?

Fernandinande said...

Can someone explain the "colonial" aspect of this for me?

Colored people are uninterested in environmental issues because white people are bad.

Kay said...

I like cauliflower, and I’ve been eating a lot of it lately. But I definitely prefer yucca. Even though I eat it, I can understand why people might hate cauliflower. I’d rather have yucca growing in my garden personally.

Browndog said...

Tommy Duncan said...

Can someone explain the "colonial" aspect of this for me?


The most logical explanation I've seen is she seems to think 'her people' don't want to grow vegetable they don't want to grow because it hearkens back to a time when they were forced to grow things they didn't want to grow on plantations established by colonial expansion.

Like the Spanish.

Her people.

Susan said...

I'd grow yucca but that would be cultural appropriation and I'm too woke for that.

Tommy Duncan said...

So AOC thinks people are being forced to grow cauliflower against their will by white vegetable supremacists?

Cauliflower Nazis? First they came for the yucca. Then they came for the Jews.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Anyone know how well yucca grows in the Bronx?

Quaestor said...

Frankly, 1-day-old cauliflower is too old for me.

Oh, don't say that, Althouse. You're denying yourself a wondrous experience. With age comes wisdom, and wisdom is sexy.

Kay said...

Ignorance is Bliss said...
Anyone know how well yucca grows in the Bronx?
5/23/19, 7:35 AM


I’m not the most knowledgable person about this, but I do know you can grow yucca indoors.

Marcus Bressler said...

Racist comment much, Herr Hostess?

THEOLDMAN

wendybar said...

I can't wait until she realizes that it isn't that easy to grow plaintains or Yucca in NYC because of the climate.

Mr. Forward said...

First they came for the cauliflower
Then they came for the carrots and onion rings.

gilbar said...

cauliflower (like broccoli) can be Delicious!
Just cover it with cheese, and then sprinkle bacon bits on the top
THEN, invent a time machine; and go back to where you started
Replace the cauliflower (or broccoli) with a pork chop, and Voila! Deliciousness!

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

What exquisite torture to have to listen to anything that cretin says.

John henry said...

Browndog,

You make an unwarranted assertion. It is more likely that aoc has more Irish blood than European Spanish.

As is true for most non-Brazilians from Latin America.

Lots of indian and african blood in the mix too. Just not much Spanish.

Many Irish born did very well under Spain. Field Marshal alejandro O'Reilly and viceroy of western south America ambrose O'Higgins are just 2 of the most prominent. Bernardo O'Higgins, the son, was co-liberator of south America.

And occasio? Pure irish name O'casey

John Henry

ALP said...

What is AOC on about...the Master Gardener program is very bend-over-backwards inclusive and 'woke'. If they are making people grow cauliflower it is probably because that is what fucking grows best in the area.

RichardJohnson said...

Hagar:
Yucca is also known as "soap weed." The western (way west from da Bronx) Indians made shampoo from it.

AOC was not talking about yucca (soap weed), the Southwestern US shrub with the white flowers. She was talking about Cassava, a.k.a. yuca. Yuca and plantains are both grown in Puerto Rico. From the Wiki article:

Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava (/kəˈsɑːvə/), manioc,[2] yuca, macaxeira, mandioca and aipim is a woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Though it is often called yuca in Latin American Spanish and in the United States, it is not related to yucca, a shrub in the family Asparagaceae. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are used to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed and industrial purposes. The Brazilian farinha, and the related garri of Western Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying it (and roasting in the case of farinha).

Cassava is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize.[3][4] Cassava is a major staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people.[5] It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of cassava starch.


It is "colonial" to grow cauliflower, which was brought over from Europe, but it is not "colonial" to grow yuca, which originated in South America, and it is not "colonial" to grow plantains, which originated in Asia (secondary, west Africa)
This girl is beyond stupid.

mockturtle said...

I've seen it used here on this forum well over a month ago.

Big Mike said...

There is nothing funny about Ocasio-Cortez. She is a monument to how one can get a degree from a formerly respected university and still know absolutely nothing.

Linda said...

Off topic a bit: Isn't there a different between yucca and yuca. Yuca (with 1 c) is the plant that is edible. But it is poisonous until cooked or peeled. Yucca is a more decorative plant that many people use in flower pots. Meade would probably know.

RichardJohnson said...

Linda: see my above comment about yuca and yucca.

Linda said...

RichardJohnson . . .
thanks - must have posted as I was typing!

Linda said...

Guessing since it is a tropical plant it isn't going to be growing in NY or Wisconsin anytime soon. Maybe with some more global warming.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

It is "colonial" to grow cauliflower, which was brought over from Europe, but it is not "colonial" to grow yuca, which originated in South America,

Then I guess we should prohibit "white people" from growing tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beans of many kinds, peppers etc. NO COFFEE FOR YOU!!!

AOC needs to stop eating apples, pears, cherries, cheese and anything else European indigenous. She should also not eat Chinese or Japanese cuisine.

I would love to see the reactions of people if we were forced to take a DNA test and only eat things that were available to your ethnicity 300 years ago. The screaming would be great!!!

Fen said...

I found out Cauliflower originated in Italy. They colonized 4-5 African states. That's it.

Levi Starks said...

What I’m seeing in this is that in addition to everything else, in order to usher in the perfect socialist utopia she envisions, she’s going to tell me what I must and must not plant in my garden.

stevew said...

But how does she feel about brussel sprouts? Personally I am a big fan of cauliflower, which we cook in a variety of ways, all of which are delicious (if I may say so).

AOC demonstrates, frequently, that she has a pretty good grasp of English vocabulary, but seems a bit vague or challenged with English grammar.

“When someone says that it’s ‘too hard’ to do a green space that grows yuca instead of, I dunno, cauliflower or something, what you’re doing is you’re taking a colonial approach to environmentalism,” the 29-year-old freshman congresswoman says in an Instagram video for her proposed Green New Deal economic-stimulus package.

“And that is why a lot of communities of color get resistant to certain environmentalist movements — because they come with a colonial lens on them.”

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Capozucca"
capo= head, zucca = pumpkin,etc
the meaning is due to the common use of the nickname 'zucca' to tell someone that has an 'empty head'

and God's robes as per Mike Angelo in the 16th Chapel = cerebral cortex, supposedly

Unknown said...

Ya'll take RPOS to literally

Like evil Wepublicans do

Cali is white

not a veg-table of color

its a symbol of oppression

like OK

MadAir said...

Not only is yuca (not yucca--thanks RichardJohnson) not suited to the climate of most of North America, preparing it for eating is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Preparation steps (which differ for sweet and bitter varieties) are necessary to remove cyanide compounds that could make for an unpleasant dinner party.

Cauliflower, on the other hand, can grow in a North American backyard garden, go from garden to table in a matter of minutes, be eaten raw or cooked in endless ways, with the only risk that you'll end up with something overcooked, mushy, and tasteless.

joshbraid said...

Wait, insisting that poor immigrants demand their food from home and not eat food that grows well locally would lead to hunger and starvation. Nah, even socialists are not that cruel.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

and that pic looks like Debby Whatshername Schultz wondering if
this vegetable would be a better replacement for her existing noodle

Fernandinande said...

Occasional Cortex walks into a bar and the bartender says "Go away, it's not unhappy hour yet."

Automatic_Wing said...

It's funny to have someone named Cortez constantly lecturing us that colonialism is bad, mmmkay.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Is Your Garden Racist?
by Sandy O'Cassional-Cortex

"melanzana"- eggplant-- did you know, is slang for those of African descent?
Other varieties of produce cultivated by our oppressors includes the carrot--
"Carrot-top" being a term of endearment for fair-skinned, northern Europeans

John henry said...

The yucca that we call yautia down south here requires no special prep.

It cooks up just like potatoes.

I knew aoc was stupid but this is a whole 'nother level.

There is no place in the us where bananas or plantains will grow outside of a hothouse.

We need to stop calling her Puerto Rican. It's embarrassing and she's not Puerto Rican anyway. She is what we call Nyorican.

John Henry

Browndog said...

Blogger John henry said...

Browndog,

You make an unwarranted assertion. It is more likely that aoc has more Irish blood than European Spanish.


I do not find my assertion unwarranted. Physical traits--Irish Lass or Spaniard?

There's this from Ancestry.com (forum):

Re: Ocasio''s from Puerto Rico


I am also working on my family ancestry. You are absolutely right, the Ocasio's settled in Sabana Grande, PR but I still can't find the date in which they arrived to the island. They came to PR from Spain but according to my research, the name's origin is in Ireland and dates back to the year 200. Somehow the name made its way to Spain during the Armada against England. Ireland allied with Spain against England.

The name Ocasio comes from the Irish surname O'Cassidy or O'Cassady which is rooted in the Fermanagh County, Ireland. I still have lots of questions about how the made their way to Spain and from there to PR. All I know is that during the Black Death disease, they migrated from Spain to PR and settled in Sabana Grande. Some people have suggested that the name originated in Italy but researching the name's origins, all genealogy search engines brings the name back to the Irish O'Cassidy's

mandrewa said...

The point of yuca is that it is drought-resistant, grows well in marginal soil, and requires almost no care.

You can plant it on marginal land and come back from 9 months to 18 months later and harvest it and get a significant amount of food with almost no investment of time or energy other than initial planting and then later the harvesting.

You wouldn't grow yuca on good farmland because there are any number of things that are more valuable. But there's a lot of marginal land in the world that is otherwise not particularly useful. Although yuca is drought-tolerant, I suspect you still need a rainy season to grow it.

Frost will kill yuca. That still leaves a number of possibilities, but I would guess that the only parts of the United States where yuca is grown in any significant amount are Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RichardJohnson said...

John Henry:
The yucca that we call yautia down south here requires no special prep.It cooks up just like potatoes.
I know this as malanga. I first knew of it in Guatemala. Like you say, it can grow in the southern US- though it is not native to the US. There is a malanga plant not far from my door. It can survive light frosts. Xanthosoma.

Xanthosoma is a genus of flowering plants in the arum family, Araceae. The genus is native to tropical America but widely cultivated and naturalized in other tropical regions.[2] Several are grown for their starchy corms, an important food staple of tropical regions, known variously as malanga, otoy, otoe, cocoyam (or new cocoyam), tannia, tannier, yautía, macabo, ocumo, macal, taioba, dasheen, quequisque, ʻape and (in Papua New Guinea) as Singapore taro (taro kongkong).

mandrewa said...

John Henry, I just looked up yautia and it's a different species than yuca. In fact it's from a completely different order of plants.

They are both starchy roots, but a potential problem that should probably be brought up for anyone wanting to buy raw yuca and try it out is that according to the USDA guide I was just reading, yuca has a cyanide in it, and if you don't cook it the right way, like for instance discarding the cooking water, you can poison yourself.

Rick.T. said...

John henry said...

"There is no place in the us where bananas or plantains will grow outside of a hothouse."

Not quite. There is limited commercial production in the US of bananas. Banana plants themselves can be grown with quite a bit of success as far north as Tennessee if sited carefully. I've seen them driving around, some up to 10 feet tall. However, you would never get fruit as the cycle is from a year to a year and a half to fruiting which the winter interrupts.

John henry said...

A lot of Irish emigrated to Spain, many in the Cadiz region. Cromwell was a big driver.

They then came to colonize SA for Spain.

Later, huge waves of italians and Germans came in the late 1800s early 1900s. Enough italians that Argentine Spanish sounds more like Italian than Spanish.

SA was independent by that time which is why I left them out when speaking of colonization.

John Henry

John henry said...

Ric T.

(putting on my lawyerly hat from another thread)

I never said banana trees would not grow in the us. Only that bananas/plantains would not. If a tree doesn't fruit, it is not growing bananas!

I did know a fellow who grew a banana tree in Fort worth. He spent more time tending it than I spent raising babies.

He was Very German. I suspect he only did it because someone said it was impossible.

The type of person, our boss once told me, who stays up at night reading the Bible and correcting God's mistakes.

A serious question: why grow banana trees commercially if they don't bear fruit?

John Henry

Yancey Ward said...

I did say on the thread that she should be more concerned about growing a brain, but I didn't have that picture in mind.

California Snow said...

The Left and the rest of us speak an entirely different language. I understand the words she's saying but I have no idea what she's saying. I did catch that she's trying to say that community gardens should plant things that the community wants such as plantains...she does understand that maybe plantain tree don't grow in Brooklyn? For someone who rages against climate change one would think she might have a better understanding on how climate affects which plants can grow where. I mean this is 2nd grade level stuff.

Rick.T. said...

John Henry - (All in good fun. You are a favorite commenter of mine.)

Hawaii is by far the largest banana producer in the United States, followed by Florida. Banana plantation in Hawaii has followed a descending trend, from 13,181 mmt in 2000 to 8,090 mmt in 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_production_in_the_United_States

And:

http://www.going-bananas.com/

(Putting on my gardening hat)

Bananas do NOT grow on trees. There is no woody material in the plant. It is a giant herb. Technically, what you see is a "pseudostem" arising from a rhizome or underground stem like Bermuda grass. Any avid gardener worth their shovel understands the thrill of growing something where it is not supposed to grow. Finally, there are banana cultivars that have beautiful leaves and flowers. There is no real competitor for adding that tropical lushness to gardens that are more northerly than Florida.

TrespassersW said...

California Snow said...
For someone who rages against climate change one would think she might have a better understanding on how climate affects which plants can grow where. I mean this is 2nd grade level stuff.

Maybe it was 2nd grade level stuff when, or where, you went to 2nd grade. (It was for me.)

cubanbob said...

How is it possible someone so stupid managed to first graduate college and then get elected to Congress?
Malanga isn't yuca and both don't grow well if at all in northern climates. But bodegas in the neighborhood sell both and who in their right wants to go through the bother of prepping yuca before cooking them?

Michael K said...

Yucca grows wild all over California and Arizona. We have half a dozen in full bloom in our yard right now. The blooms are so prolific and heavy that the stalk of one has tipped over horizontal.

I like cauliflower and had some for dinner last night.

John henry said...

Rick,

I just knew, as soon as I hit publish that you would point out that bananas don't grow on trees.

Next time you come to pr stop by and we can sit in the shade of my 30' tall clump of grass.

That many, including me, call bamboo trees.

John Henry

Danno said...

If you want some comic relief on AOC, watch some of the Youtube videos starring mini-AOC. These videos mock AOC in a most excellent way.

Rick.T. said...

John henry said...

"I just knew, as soon as I hit publish that you would point out that bananas don't grow on trees."

Ha. Sounds like a plan! Botany is a confusing world where bananas are berries but strawBERRIES and raspBERRIES are not.

JaimeRoberto said...

In this case I think colonial means "stuff white people like".

Bilwick said...

I'm late to the story, too. What is it? That researchers discovered a significant difference between a cauliflower and AOC's brain? (That is, the cauliflower contains more knowledge of economics and history.)

Michael K said...

How is it possible someone so stupid managed to first graduate college

You might read this account of Astralia's "Ivy League " college.

In some classes, the frantic obsession with demographics was spearheaded by the students, against the apparent wishes of their instructors. In one nonfiction writing class, discussion of Gay Talese’s influential 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra centered not on Talese’s quippy yet unhurried scene-setting, or on his vivid portraiture of a subject he’d never actually interviewed, but on Talese’s misogyny.

It's all over. I used to think Australia was about common sense.

narciso said...

well bill ayers has been sowing seeds down there, as well, using the aborigine narrative as primary, although they seem to have dodged a bullet this time with morrison, trumbull would have been a debacle like may is provoking,

narciso said...

as a latino, albeit generation x I find her quite embarrassing,


https://saraacarter.com/democratic-senator-kyrsten-sinema-votes-to-confirm-trump-judges/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-pug

narciso said...

so the mind arson is global in scope:


http://invisibleserfscollar.com/radio-silence-and-the-dog-that-did-not-bark-positioning-positive-education-globally/

Raymond Nolan Scott said...


Ocacio/Ocasio is one of my Puerto Rican family lines.
My maternal grandfather's maternal grandfather was Puerto Rican.

nobody on this site mentioned that Puerto Rico has a history of considerable Irish immigration from 15th Century to 19th Century



During the 16th century, many Irishmen, who were known as "Wild Geese", escaped from forced service in the English Army and joined the Spanish Army. They did so either in Europe or when they could "jump ship" off the coast of Puerto Rico (whenever English ships came to trade or when the English Navy was engaged in attacks against the Spanish colonial forces on the island), at which time they joined the Spanish colonial army, mainly in San Juan.

Many of these men who served in the Spanish colonial army in Puerto Rico remained in the service of Spain after their military service was completed and decided to stay on the island, most often sending for extended family members from Ireland or Spain. Some married local women.

Field Marshal Alejandro O'Reilly and Colonel Thomas O'Daly,[1] among other Irish military figures, were sent to Puerto Rico from Spain during the 18th century in order to improve the capital's fortifications. This led to an increase in Irish immigration as family members were brought to the island by these Irish serving in the Spanish colonial army.

In 1797, the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Ramón de Castro, ordered the expulsion of the Irish from the island. This immediately led to protests from the Puerto Rican people since they had grown to respect the Irish immigrant community for their steadfast support of the island's residents. Almost all of those who temporarily fled during this time survived the witch hunt created by Governor de Castro and returned to live in Puerto Rico discreetly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_immigration_to_Puerto_Rico