Word: rhubarb
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...chefs have shown more culinary flair than Rosenzweig. Among her classic dishes: chimney-smoked lobster glossed with tarragon butter and buttressed against a crisp cake of threadlike Chinese noodles; roast quail with rhubarb bedded down on dandelion greens; and homespun corn cakes topped with caviar and creme fraiche. Similarly, Joyce Goldstein, chef-owner of the stylish Square One in San Francisco, creates an aura of flavor unity on a menu that may offer crusty Italian bread, Russian mushroom soup, pungent Korean steak and a very American spiced persimmon pudding...
...Rhubarb (as defined by the Random House College Dictionary--a must for the true Harvard sports fan of 1959): 1. any polygonaceous herb of the genus Rheum, as R. officinale, having a medicinal rhizome, and R. Rhaponticum, having edible leafstalks. (No, that's not it.) 2. the rhizome of any medicinal species of this plant, forming a combined cathartic and astringent. (That ain't it, either.) 3. the edible fleshy leafstalks of any of the garden species. (That's gross) 4. U.S. Slang. a quarrel or a squabble. (Bingo...
...sports language has changed. Thirty years have passed. Sentences have become less wordy. Less difficult to read. No rhubarb. Really. Disappeared...
...wonder--if this were 1959 and Harvard had just defeated St. Lawrence--would this paragraph make any sense? No way. But something about rhubarb would have. Something like this...
...varsity hockey team raised its rhubarb and whipped the Saints of St. Lawrence, 5-1, with a powerful cannon-ball offense. The profligate Saint fans yelled assorted profanities and taunted the varsity with some malicious intent before Ed Presz advanced to the goal and proceeded to score a goal of ethereal beauty in the opening minutes of this pugilistic contest...