BS: remember the broccoli

Subject: remember Herbert Walker Bush
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 05:53 PM

Remember when George H W Bush wouldn't eat his broccoli?

"Sing Out!" published a song after the Clinton victory called "He Didn't Eat His Broccoli," Lonnquist the name of the author.
You used to be able to pull it up online years ago, now you can't anymore.

"It's true
It's true
It happened to George
It could happen to you..."

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 05:58 PM

Any chance of telling us what you're on about?

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Greg F.
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:11 PM

We ate broccoli every day for eight years, figuring if it would repel Bushes, it was a small price to pay.

Steve, see http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/23/us/i-m-president-so-no-more-broccoli.html

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:21 PM

Link didn't work, Greg. But I looked it up anyway. I still don't see the point of the thread. Cloudy heads of mass-produced polytunnel broccoli are indeed dire. I recommend instead organic sweetheart cabbage, or flower sprouts, or home-grown purple sprouting broccoli. I'm not getting this, am I?

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Greg F.
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:25 PM

Ooops - sorry about that- works for me. And I was referring to the historical incident, not the thread.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:35 PM

Sounds a bit like Popeye and his spinach. If Bush had only eaten his broccoli he'd have been 'strong to the finish...'

I much prefer spring greens and curly kale.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:36 PM

Amazing how good the Bushes are looking these days...

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:43 PM

Picture this brief sketch.
In this home, a subscription to "Sing Out!" is de rigueur.
One day, issue number 37 shows up with the Lonnquist song.
The Sing Out! parent makes of this, a teaching moment.

Parent to child: Remember when George H W Bush ran for re-election?
Child: Clinton won.
Parent: that's right. And why did George H W Bush lose the election?
Child: Clinton won?
Parent: Why did George H W Bush not get re-elected as the incumbent for the US Presidency?
       Because:
       "He Didn't Eat His Broccoli."

You fill in the blank for the child's riposte.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 10:45 PM

Here ya are.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 02:01 AM

Just stick with the Ballyfermot broccoli.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 02:28 AM

it's broccoli dear, I say it's spinach & I say the hell with it

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 12:41 PM

Rapparee remembered the broccoli ON HIS BIRTHDAY. Respect.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 01:35 AM

i am disgusted that the price od broccoli in my local supermarket has gone up by more than 10% due to the fall in the pound's impact on Italian imported produce. If the government was stupid enough to have that daft referendum, then at the same time, they should have passed legislation requiring the store employees and shareholders to bear the brunt of the resulting increases.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 04:53 AM

<PEDANT ALERT> If it is green, strictly speaking, it is calabrese - purple broccoli</PEDANT> thats how the trade distinguish it, save mistakes.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 05:32 AM

I'm picking my own sprouting broccoli. Here's a tip, "discovered" by me by accident. Grow two kinds, the early purple (sown in May) and summer sprouting (sown in June, too late for summer - that was the accident). The "summer" variety then starts cropping around Christmas or even a bit before, followed on nicely by the early purple, which gets going about now. Voila - sprouting broccoli for about five months, even more if you sow the summer variety at the right time, and if you've got room.

I find calabrese dismally tasteless and boring. If you can get a really fresh, crisp head, a good thing to do with it is to break it into bite-sized florets and incorporate it into pasta con cime di rape (they use stringy turnip tops in Puglia and use orecchiette pasta, but any short pasta will do). Dead easy. Make a sauce with EV olive oil, chilli flakes, sliced garlic, chopped fresh parsley and a good handful of chopped cherry tomatoes. Meanwhile, boil up the pasta. Two minutes before the pasta is al dente, throw the broccoli florets into the pasta water. Drain and mix with the sauce - you may need a splash of the pasta water to loosen it a bit. I like a bit of pecorino or parmesan on top. Leave out the cheese though and it's a vegan dish! We don't have calabrese any other way. Romanesco is very nice. It can't make up its mind whether it's broccoli or cauliflower.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 05:36 AM

Ps. Don't forget to season the sauce!

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 05:50 AM

Maybe George H. W. Bush would have eaten broccoli if it were called "calabrese" in the US. It's a more appetizing name. "Broccoli" sounds a bit like a vocalization issued by a pregnant woman in the midst of a bout of morning sickness.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 06:11 AM

Or the sound one makes when with one's drinking companions Ralph and Hughie.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: robomatic
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 01:23 PM

In my family we had a saying that originated with my brother: "Taste it before you say you hate it!"
I can't remember whether or not I liked broccoli when I was a kid. I've liked it as a grownup fine.
I thought George H. W. Bush was hilarious when word got out that "I'm President now, I don't have to eat broccoli if I don't want to!"
I think it was a good story all by itself. I didn't take it too serious that it might be an insult to the vegetable. Not everyone likes everything.
As long as he'd tasted it, he was free to say he hated it.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 01:32 PM

Who could forget Broccoli. He produced all the best Bond films.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 02:34 PM

It's sparrow-grass, like the toffs eat.

Subject: ADD: He Didn't Eat His Broccoli (Ken Lonnquist)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 12:44 AM

Well, I suppose it's only right that we post the lyrics. This is from Sing Out! Magazine, Vol 37, No 4, Meb/Mar/April 1993, page 102

HE DIDN'T EAT HIS BROCCOLI
(Ken Lonnquist)

Listen carefully, boys & girls.
My tale will make your toenails curl.
It's about the leader of the free world
Who wouldn't eat his broccoli!

His mother warned him when he was small
He'd never get any respect at all
If he always whined and bawled.
And didn't eat his broccoli!

His doctor said he'd look sickly & thin
His dentist said it would twist his grin.
He'd have to wear glasses with dorky rims
If he didn't eat his broccoli!

CHORUS
It's true! It's true!
It happened to George, it could happen to you!
You will see.. .You've got to eat your broccoli!

His teacher said he would not remember
That Pearl Harbor was bombed in December.
He'd say someday it occurred in September
'Cause he didn't eat his broccoli!

His speech coach worried he'd sound like a simp.
His gestures would look silly and limp
Politically he'd be branded a wimp
If he didn't eat his broccoli!

If ever he ran for head of state,
He'd choose a chump for his running mate.
He'd be doomed to pick someone seventh rate
'Cause he didn't eat his broccoli! CHORUS

Ken wrote: "The following are some miscellaneous verses I've used to highlight lowlights of George's presidency."

Exxon Valdez:
He'd lack direction and strength of will
If ever there were an oil spill,
Fish would die from dogged-up gills
'Cause he didn't eat his broccoli!

Clean Air Act
Lakes would die, and fish would, too
From acid rain when the sulphur blew.
He'd wring his hands, and not know what to do
'Cause he didn't eat his broccoli!

Berlin Wall:
Well, walls are crumbling, the world is new.
And George sits wondering what to do.
He’s biting his nails and he hasn’t a clue
‘Cause he didn’t eat his broccoli!

Gulf War
The Persian Gulf Crisis is out of hand.
George is up to his neck in sand.
And why? He still doesn’t understand:
He didn’t eat his broccoli!

‘92 Election:
The bottom fell out in ‘92
He lost the election, and he was through
Because, as almost everyone knew...
He didn’t eat his broccoli!

In keeping with the creative genius of the folk process, the following verse just popped out as Diane was reading through the lyrics, considering the song for publication.. .it happened to be just after the election. When she mentioned it to Ken, he said, "By all means, include it; I'm flattered to be folk processed even before publication."

His time is over, there's someone new
The election proved what I'm telling you
Time for a change, hallelu, hallelu,
'Cause he didn't eat his broccoli! CHORUS


Ken Lonnquist "wrote this song just after George made his first public condemnation of the long-suffering vegetable. Since then, the song has served as a handy rationale for the foibles of the Bush presidency." Ken's songs have been seen before in Sing Out!, but "Carrie's Song" (32/1), "A Patchwork World" (32/2), and "Weave" (35/1) represent his more lyrical side. Though this song may have only a brief "shelf life," we relish the opportunity to kick the guy while he's down. Sort of a last hurrah, if you will. Ken says, "I've included a bunch of extra verses I found. I only use the first six, usually— plus the last one, since I spoke with you!" Ken has recorded this and sixteen other humorous/sarcastic ditties on Cleveland's Lunch available, along with his other recordings for adults and children, from Maple Twig Music (Box 3411, Madison, WI 53704).
\
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBWBnPwL0hA

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Thompson
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 02:44 AM

The George Bush kind of broccoli can be lovely if you cook it with a bit more zizz. Fry up a bunch of cashew nuts (raw, unsalted) in olive or rapeseed oil, add a scatter of chopped chilli, then your chopped broccoli, then a half-cup or so of mixed soya sauce, water, honey and whatever you're having yourself, slam on the lid and let it sizzle, take the lid off and give it a stir, cook till tender and serve steaming hot.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 03:06 AM

I'm with George H on this.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 03:34 AM

I'm trying to remember which vegetables we had just after the War. I'm pretty sure we didn't have any broccoli, or even knew of it. It was always onions, carrots, the inevitable cabbage and spuds.

My parents had an allotment, and grew sprouts, onions, peas and rhubarb by the ton. And of course potatoes. We had tomatoes growing in front of a south-facing wall at home. Also parsley and mint (no other herbs) Many families grew massive marrows, but we didn't for some reason.

School dinners were absolutely dire, and we were made to finish every bit, including over-boiled cabbage. At home too, no-one was allowed to leave any food on the plate, or expect a smacked bottom. How times have changed!

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 06:12 AM

Depends who's smacking it. 😜

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Thompson
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 07:59 AM

The worst of school dinners was improperly washed but more than properly cooked cabbage, which occasionally contained slugs or snails for extra protein.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 08:24 AM

Well at least it was organic then! For me, the worst thing was the big black lumps in the so-called mashed potato that was served up with a spring-loaded scoop. I did love lumpy rice pudding though and I prayed every day that the pud would be that pink blancmange with a pellicle on top. Yum.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 08:48 AM

East London schoolchildren's song about school dinners - based on 'Sixteen Tons'

"If you go to school, better step aside,
A lot of kids didn't and a lot of kids died.
The spuds are of iron and the meat's of steel,
And if they don't get you then the afters will"

or

What's for dinner,, what's for dinner?
Irish stew, Irish stew,
Sloppy semolina, sloppy semolina
No fank you, no fank you!
Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 10:33 AM

We used to sing:-

Say what you will,
School dinners make you ill,
And Davy Crockett died of shepherd's pie.
Our school din-dins
Come from pig bins
Out of town.   (Parody of a Max Bygraves song popular at the time)

And we called that stodgy steamed pudding with bits of fruit in 'Boiled Baby'.

Steve, I'd completely forgotten those spring-loaded scoops, wielded by ferocious dinner ladies with red angry faces! And as for spam fritters...

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 03:34 PM

You all had to bring up school dinners, which west of the pond get called school lunches (I was raised saying lunches not dinners, in any case).

I'd rather forget those. Although that stuff called Spanish Rice was tasty, since, as Steve Shaw stresses, the sauce was well seasoned.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 03:48 PM

We certainly brought up a good few school dinners, fear not! 🤢

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 08:06 PM

Shepard's pie is universally known as a mysterious use of leftovers but 'boiled baby' is new to me. Sounds like the next right wing video about planned parenthood.

Cooking broccoli will fumigate a house but cooking Cauliflower smells like someone got sick.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 03:37 AM

In Asda yesterday (we were there to get some spinach and spring greens) there was ONLY broccoli in the green veg department, and nothing else. Nothing. This is a huge Asda store, acres of aisles, but not a sprig of anything green except bloody broccoli. Every shelf was empty. It reminded me of Scotland... :)

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 07:30 AM

Disliking (and refusing to eat) broccoli was the only thing Curmudgeon had in common with Bush the Dad. Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables -- but Tom did the all the cooking for close to 30 years, until he lost his eyesight and broke his ankle. I grabbed the opportunity to eat broccoli every chance I got -- Chinese, etc. Now I can indulge at whim.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 02:21 PM

Ah, Eliza! Scotland and empty produce shelves!

You bring to mind a much-photographed actor named Sam Heughan from New Galloway. Sam is a foodie. When he traveled to southern California, he kind of thought that he had died and gone to heaven. His work in the acting business means he sometimes has had to rent a flat there. You know what his guilty pleasure is? Going to the Whole Foods market chain, and taking photographs of the stock on the shelves!

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 02:34 PM

When I lived in Scotland (in the Sixties) I was amazed at the huge selection of pies, pastries and scones in the bakers' shops. But there was an absolute dearth of any fruit or fresh vegetables. I don't think in those days the Scots were much interested in fresh produce like that. They went mad for Mars bars, fish suppers and mutton pies (which are delicious by the way) washed down with Irn Bru. Maybe things have changed nowadays!

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 06:02 PM

I went into a baker's shop in Glasgow. Pointing to a confection in the window, I asked yer man, "Is that a cake or a meringue?"

"Naw, you're right, he said, "It's a cake."



I'll get me coat...

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Mar 17 - 11:12 AM

Mystery ingredients? I didn't grow up, Donuel, with shepherd's pie.
However, there was always MEATLOAF. Who knew what got baked into the meatloaf!

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Mar 17 - 11:30 AM

Meatloaf: "I would eat anything for love, but I won't eat that!" (apologies to Michael Aday)

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Mar 17 - 06:10 PM

oddly enough, reading this is getting me hungry

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Mar 17 - 07:44 PM

I don't care for broccoli, never ate it as a child.....I don't think it had been invented then, although we had cabbage, cauli, and Brussels sprouts which I lived and still do. Thinly sliced, fired up with chopped bacon......yummo......makes me slaver just thinking about it......

But broccoli, no. Never. Not ever. I cooked and reluctantly ate it for years because I thought Himself liked it until he told me he could take it or leave it, so since that day not a sprig of broccoli has crossed the threshold of this house.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 03:25 AM

My husband says he quite likes it Jennie, but he crumbles bits into his fiery hot chilli stew, and it's debatable whether he can even taste it! I much prefer sprouts, spring greens and spinach.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: JennieG
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 06:48 PM

He can have my share and welcome, Eliza!

The only thing broccoli has going for it is the fact that it is green, even though it's not a very attractive green as far as greens go. I quite like green.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 01:41 PM

Also remember that Chief Executive who ate jelly beans. Those were the days ... not.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Mar 17 - 08:34 PM

Well I can't say that I exactly hate broccoli (to be clear, it's calabrese I'm referring to), but it is very boring. But what a different beast it is from home-grown purple sprouting. I have a good supply of that right now and I'll be using it in my orecchiette con cime di rape on Saturday night. Not tomorrow, as I have a pan of the most amazing soup, to be eaten with crusty bread, made with a soffritto of EV olive oil, carrots, celery, onions and pancetta, ham stock from my last boiled free-range cured uncooked gammon, and, the coup de grace, a 500g bag of Bartolini zuppa rapida mix. You need at least two litres of stock for the whole 500g bag. Cucina povera!


[Marks 'n' Sparks sell the mix]

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Mar 17 - 11:48 AM

Maybe broccoli at supper tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Mar 17 - 12:31 PM

Ooooh! Got some gorgeous Spring greens at the supermarket yesterday, and husband got a bag of his much-loved baby spinach. After eating that lot we should be full of vim and vigour!

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Mar 17 - 05:33 PM

Delicious broccoli, this was. Ordered it at the local branch of Legal Sea Foods, for those of you outside of New England this is a restaurant not a deli. It came with supper entrée: I couldn't finish both chicken filets, but I DID finish my broccoli, so THERE.

Subject: RE: BS: remember the broccoli
From: olddude
Date: 18 Mar 17 - 11:18 PM

Love it love it, asparagus no thanks