Ignorance is ok...if you're willing to learn

I don't mind not knowing things. I know enough to know that no one knows everything, as awkward as that sounds. If I don't know something I'm generally interested in finding the answer. Or the location, or pronunciation or whatever it is that I don't know.

Consequently, I don't mind...too much...when other people don't know things. Even when it is something that I think they should know. I fail in being understanding, upon occasion. I did, for instance, laugh out loud (it just happened, I didn't plan to hurt anyone's feelings) at the woman in front of me in line at a hotel in South Africa who wanted to know if the surf sound (the hotel was built actually over water) would go on all night, or was there a time limit? I think most people would have a hard time not being humoured by someone who didn't understand the constancy of waves.

What I don't like is someone who tells me I'm wrong, when I know as a certainty I'm right. Not talking points of philosophy here, just basic facts.

Which brings us to our story. I was shopping for Hominy today. Canned hominy. Now, I get that most people living this far from the American south would have no idea what that means. This far west and north grits are not familiar either.

Hominy, by the way, is defined in the food dictionary as:


One of the first food gifts the American Indians gave to the colonists, hominy is dried white or yellow corn kernels from which the hull and germ have been removed. This process is done either mechanically or chemically by soaking the corn in slaked lime or lye. Hominy is sold canned, ready-to-eat or dried (which must be reconstituted before using). It's commonly served as a side dish or as part of a casserole. When dried hominy is broken or very coarsely ground it's called samp. When ground, it's called hominy grits — or simply grits — and usually comes in three grinds — fine, medium and coarse.

I was at a store - which used to carry it, and a type of store where there was a faint possibility they might know what grits and/or hominy are/is. I couldn't find any. So I asked. The clerk asked me to say it again, slower (fair enough, I do talk too quickly sometimes) so I did. She said she had no idea what I was talking about. Was it English? In retrospect I don't know if she meant the language I was speaking or the ingredient I was looking for. Not that it matters!

So I told her is was dried corn, that I've only seen it white, and that it isn't like corn niblets, it's more like dried corn the way peas for split pea soup are dried. I really didn't want to get into the chemical process then. I should have.

Why? When I told her it was treated dried corn kernels, she said "I don't think so". Ok, so she's never heard of it. No big deal. So I decided that I would explain a bit. Explained the whole popular in the south, chemically treated corn, when ground referred to as grits. At which point she said "grits come from pigs".

I was seriously tempted to just say "I don't think so", but she seemed pretty certain about where grits come from, despite not even knowing what they are! So I left if. I'm sure at some point she's heard "porc and grits", or "sausage and grits" and assumed they were the same thing. Or something. I don't know. All I know is that in this instance...I'm right. And she was seriously wrong. Poor pigs, like they're not giving enough as it is! Which brings us to the end, and who better to end it than Ogden Nash? The things you remember from reading to your kids!

The pig, if I am not mistaken
Gives us ham, porc and bacon
Let others think his heart is big
I think it stupid of the pig.