TEST YOUR APHORISM

Barthold Yoemans of Duluth writes: "If a kiss is a gymnasium for germs, I'm a sports fan."
This certainly seems original to me, but perhaps someone has heard it or something like it before.
Meanwhile, no one has commented on Cutter Smith's recent "A smart dog knows it's own tail." Shall we let him claim authorship? E-mail your comments here.

SCROLL DOWN  ¶ 10:17 AM

  TODAY'S BOTANY LESSON

Logan Franklin of Terra Linda wants to know if a kumquat or cumquat, as it's sometimes spelt, is related to a loquat, explaining that he has a loquat tree which fills his yard with pesky leaves every fall. When he read here that I am richer by five small kumquat fruits, thanks to last week's open studio, his curiosity was piqued.

Although both trees produce orange fruit, they apparently are related only on speaking terms – etymologically that is. Both are natives of China where the Mandarin word for kumquat is "chin chu" which translates into English as golden orange, and apparently sounds something like kumquat when a Mandarin says the words. The Mandarin for loquat is "lo chu" which means rush orange and sounds, coincidently, like loquat.

All this fascinating stuff was cribbed from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language which says a kumquat is a member of the fortunella family while a loquat is in the eribotrya clan.

Meanwhile, I have saved my kumquat seeds and planted them in small pots. So stay tuned. Who knows how my fortunella may grow?

SCROLL DOWN
  ¶ 5:45 AM

  KUMQUATS

Open studios have been rather slow for me this month, but last weekend a visitor gave me five kumquats from a tree she had raised from seed in her own garden in Redwood City. So the weekend wasn't a complete bust.
She suggested that I save the seeds and try raising a tree of my own. I think I'll do it, and maybe even have some bonsai kumquats. They would be worth seeing. Of course, the Bolinas Museum will get one and MALT will another kumquat, but with every fruit having two seeds, I'll certainly have enough for my experiment.
The seeds, by the way, are charming, with a shinny skin of dark amber. Each one is a little prayer bead. All seeds should be so lucky.
On reflection, I figure the gift of fruit made my efforts worthwhile, and knowing now that May is kumquat season, I'm determined to hold open studios for the next two weekends, including Memorial Day weekend, May 29, 39 and 31. Maybe someone will bring a watermelon.
It all reminds me of the days when I used to offer free crab grass with the purchase of every print. For some reason, that promotion didn't work too well, perhaps because I said the buyer had to dig the crab grass. Hey, it worked for Tom Sawyer, but that was fiction.

SCROLL DOWN  ¶ 1:55 PM