With the pandemic, I am now engaged in the most popular hobby of all times. I wanted to find some pink fibrous begonias, but found myself driving by the garden centres. They had lineups of cars to get into the parking lots, and then snaking lines of people outside. I wonder what will be the case after the pandemic. Will this interest remain or float away?
Something keeps popping into my mind. A square meal is an odd expression. Plates are round, so why are meals square? But aren't I being too literal? The word square has a meaning that includes proper, honest, and straightforward. The story that a square meal came out of the British Royal Navy's use of square wooden plates is a false one. Those plates were knowns as trenchers, but there's no connection. It is so wonderful a connection that the story continues to be repeated.
The square meal phrase is of US origin and the first reference is 1894.
Fair and square, all square, and square deal are in the same expression group. The term honest food is in the same range as square meal - simple food using simple ingredients. There are lots of restaurants with honest meals, there's an honest restaurant, there's honest food, the honest kitchen - for both people and dogs. There are even restaurant menus that offer "bluntly honest descriptions".
Do you know those round hay bales you sometimes see in fields? The government is going to outlaw them. Apparently cows aren’t getting a square meal.
The simple dandelion has many stories, and there are millions of them at Lilycrest Gardens, Brian's hybridizing field. We take them for granted, but looking at them closely is a marvel.
