Cultural Cartography

Men at work and on holiday

I am working hard organizing Interesting Berlin . We have lots of speakers and the tickets are selling very well (Buy here to make sure you get one). I am also posting on our Interesting Berlin blog  and twittering as well. (http://twitter.com/IntrstingBerlin) so feeling rather digitally stretched. 

So I am going to do what is a classic in Britain in the summer holidays: put up a men at work sign and go on holiday. We are going to Sicily for 2 weeks and I am looking forward to good food and sun. 

I will probably post again before Interesting on 12th June but not sure. 

Long in the tooth

I often wonder about lost semiotic meanings. Indeed I am thinking of doing a series of postings on just that. One thing that struck me recently, after thinking a bit about age and people getting older in general, is how even sayings are losing their meaning. 

Long in the tooth is generally believed to refer to horses and the fact that their teeth carry on growing as they get older (see here). But there is some discussion about this. As I was an expert on useless facts to do with teeth in a past life, I happen to know that one of the by products of humans getting older is that their gums start to recede, making their teeth look longer. However this can be prevented by better brushing etc (I don't want to give you a lecture on how to look after your teeth). 

My question is: As we all look after our teeth better, will this phrase lose its meaning? Or has it already done so. 

Home Cooking

The places I was eating in Memphis were for various reasons not very sophisticated. I was there to do some work on ice tea, so I was looking for the best places that served their home made ice tea. This led to me eating at lots of places that do what they call down there "Home Cooking". 

What was interesting semiotically about these places, is that they used all the semiotic codes at their disposal to be homely and down to earth. Not really basic, just making it clear that this is all about motherly love. One place was called "The Cupboard". I love that idea of raiding the cupboard for food at night, which the name conjures up. Another was called "Soul Fish", evoking not only the idea of Southern soul food, but also the idea of simplicity. 

My biggest surprise at the latter restaurant was to discover that it is not only the UK that does fish in batter. Catfish with fries is amazing. It is like fish and chips but better - and I find that hard to say as a Brit. The batter was crispier and the fish hotter and fresher. And of course I washed the whole thing down with some good ole ice tea. Just as Momma would have wanted.