"Hey, you! Fanboy! Shaddup!" (That's my little tribute to Drew Hayes, by the way.)
The web address for this site features the words "don't corn me". Most people who read this know the origin. Some do not. It's a funny little story anyway.
*ahem*
A couple of us were sitting around the small kitchen table one night discussing cultural foods. This had all come about because of an earlier trip to the grocery store and the utter amazement that the "ethnic foods" aisle had nothing from Africa or Antarctica ... though we imagined penguins taste like crap. When we got home a few of us were trying to come up with a list of what other ethnic foods should be provided. The matronly Scottish woman among us suggested a more domesticated form of haggis, which made us all make faces. Then the Irishman thought long and hard about what would be in the Irish section.
"Well, ye cannae very well put an ethnicity on cabbage and potatoes. An' I doubt very much they'd put nothin' but whiskey an' beer on the shelf. I dunno' maybe some pre-packaged corned beef or somethin'," he thought aloud.
"How does one corn something anyway?" Avi asked.
Avi. Nearest and dearest to my heart. Asks a lot of strange questions such as "Why do all tampon brands end in 'X'? Except for OB. That doesn't count." and "How does one officially tell apple brands apart? Are there apple experts? Do they have degrees or something? Who died and made them Grand Master of the Apples, anyway?" Avi.
He continued: "Is it magic? Is it like: 'Poof! You're corned!'?" When he said "poof", he gestured to me as though I were the focus of this spell or whathaveyou.
And to this day, many years later, I still can't tell you why it bothered me so much. But it did. It was as though I was momentarily betrayed by his pretend corning spell. "Don't CORN me!" I said. Most described it as something between a scold and a plead.
Whatever it was, it was (apparently) hilarious. I haven't lived it down. The phrase remains so popular this website was labeled with it.
We have since come to learn that corning is a brining process. Kind of like pickling. Only for meat. It is not magic, and it certainly does not "poof".
So now you know. Don't corn me.
