Reading Envy Readers discussion

If you looked into any random topics to aid in your understanding of the novel, feel free to share them here!

For me, today it was beaten biscuits. Some of you probably know I've long had a baking blog, so you know I will have to make at least one mentioned baked good.

When Scarlett is finally eating at the bbq where the engagement will be announced, her stays are so tight that all she can eat is a small piece of a beaten biscuit.

Beaten biscuits come directly from slave kitchens and would have required incredible focused physical labor. They are often used for country ham sandwiches.

You can watch two women from Maryland make these for over a half hour, including a mallet for beating the dough and a traditional tool for punching the air out before baking. The baker also hand forms each biscuit!

Since GwtW is in Georgia, I found a slightly modernized recipe on Atlanta Magazine.

Garden & Gun talked to one of the chefs from the Southern Foodway Alliance to learn about the history of the biscuit. They also discuss why it's the best sandwich biscuit, and share a slightly modified recipe.

I hope to try this recipe soon! Maybe I need to find some country ham first.

I looked up the term / strategy “King Cotton”, which was mentioned in the novel and looked up some of the Civil War battles and generals that Mitchell writes about. I think the last time I did a deep dive in to the Civil War was in Junior High.

Jeff wrote: "I looked up the term / strategy “King Cotton”, which was mentioned in the novel and looked up some of the Civil War battles and generals that Mitchell writes about. I think the last time I did a de..."

Is that just a name for the crop because it was so important?

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Is that just a name for the crop because it was so important? ..." Sort of, but it goes deeper than that. It was the overall theory that because of cotton an independent Confederacy would be economically prosperous and would put the Yankee's textile industry out of business, and ultimately force the United Kingdom and France to support the South in the war as they were so dependent on US cotton. There is a long entry on Wikipedia about it. Very interesting.

I had to google Louisiana Zouaves, they were infantry soldiers with a very fancy uniform, it’s worth a google just for the pictures of it.

This is probably only slightly related to the book and I heard it from another podcast then had to go check. Stained glass windows commemorating Southern generals were put in the Washington Cathedral in 1956. It blows my mind that people were still trying to almost celebrate this awful civil war that late, they were taken out in 2017.

Shatterlings wrote: "This is probably only slightly related to the book and I heard it from another podcast then had to go check. Stained glass windows commemorating Southern generals were put in the Washington Cathedr..." Statues, flags, and other such items commemorating the Civil War are still being taken down. I still see Confederate flags on hats and bumper stickers, even up in Minnesota. The "stars and bars" are still a thing.

So in passing, Mitchell describes the boom of Atlanta at the start of part 2 as being possible when the Cherokee conceded the region.

Conceded is a strange term.

This is a long look at what happened to the Cherokee in Georgia in the 1830s. I'm having a hard time parsing out the boundaries of the "Trail of Tears" because some want to say this isn't it, but clearly they were forced out of the region.

What the internet told me:

long sweetening: Noun/ long sweetening (uncountable) (Southern US, Midland US) A viscous, syrupy sweetener, generally molasses, but sometimes table syrup.

Turkey-tail fans: Noun/ Turns out, it is what it is.

Joe Brown Pikes: Noun/ A pike (lance) ordered by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown for Confederate troops from his state. They were each a 12-inch blade on about a 6-foot pole. Some were equipped with ingenious devices, such as a trigger that would shoot a hidden point out of the staff, or a "bridle cutter', a hook to grab and cut an enemy cavalryman's reins.

yard dogs: "Scarlett thought grimly that things were indeed at a pretty pass when horses had shoes and people's feet were as bare as yard dogs'." I looked around and while I couldn't find anything directly, it seems it might apply to pour whites and/or slaves during this time. Anyone else know more?

rabbit tobacco (aka) Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium: Noun/ a biennial herb to one meter tall. In its first year, the plant produces tightly packed rosettes covered in wooly hair. In the second year, the plant produces a tall stem with alternate leaves and yellow peg-shaped flowerheads. These are borne in clusters. The seeds are dispersed by the wind. Found on open dry sandy habitat throughout Eastern North America. Common names include old field balsam, rabbit tobacco and sweet everlasting. When crushed, the plant exudes a characteristic maple syrup scent.

pot liquor: Noun/ liquid in which meat, fish, or vegetables have been boiled; stock. I'm familiar with the term "stock" just not pot liquor. Interesting.

Casey wrote: "yard dogs: "Scarlett thought grimly that things were indeed at a pretty pass when horses had shoes and people's feet were as bare as yard dogs'." I looked around and while I couldn't find anything ..."

Re: potliquor, I often see it spelled potlikker as it is here The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South

From what I understand, very specifically potlikker is the leftover cooking liquid from collards (which would have ham in it) and usually baby's first food in the south is cornbread crumbled into potlikker and absorbing the liquid.

Shinplaster was not a term I had heard before, it’s basically just a worthless bank note.

I just assumed that a “yard dog” would be a dog that lived in the yard rather than a slang term for a person. I might be missing other slang terms.

tommyrot: nonsense; rubbish. (While I don't think I'd read this term before, I was able to intuit its meaning)

ague: malaria or some other illness involving fever and shivering. A fever or shivering fit.

portiers: A hanging curtain placed over a door or over the doorless entrance to a room. Its name is derived from the French word for door, porte. It is usually of some heavy material, such as velvet, brocade, or plush, and is often fixed upon a brass arm, moving in a socket with the opening and closing of the door.

Cerberus: a monstrous watchdog with three (or in some accounts fifty) heads, which guarded the entrance to Hades. (Fluffy from HP #1)

hod: a builder's V-shaped open trough on a pole, used for carrying bricks and other building materials.

sprangle: Intransitive verb/ to spread out in different directions : branch out : ramify, straggle streams sprangle over the countryside. Transitive verb/ 1. to cause to sprangle (DIFFUSE) 2. to rough up the feathers of (an arrow) as by injury or carelessness

witches' locks: "His nose was thin and craggy, his eyebrows bushy and twisted into witches' locks and a lush growth of hair sprang from his ears, giving them the tufted look of a ..." (I guess I can imagine, but is this a thing?)

rook: verb/ take money from (someone) by cheating, defrauding, or overcharging them.

There was a comment about a prisoner of war camp near Atlanta somewhere nearby. Having watched the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War (it’s called The Civil War and I think it’s on American Netflix), my tentacles went up. Did a google search and my instincts were correct that the reference was to Andersonville, which was one of the worst POW camps that I have ever heard about. The Japanese POW camps were this bad too.

I also searched the comment about the fat Dutch Queen on the English throne in Chapter 13. Apparently Americans anglicized the word, Deutsch, which means Germans in German, to Dutch. So when you Deutschland scrawled on a jacket during the Olympics, it just means Germany.

Really enjoying looking up some words I didn't know. Highlights so far are:
Acquisitiveness - Excessive interest in acquiring money or material things
Vituperative - Bitter and Abusive
Did you have any favorites?

Melissa W wrote: "There was a comment about a prisoner of war camp near Atlanta somewhere nearby. Having watched the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War (it’s called The Civil War and I think it’s on American Net..."
Wow, didn't know there were any on this side of the country!

I looked up how to play Whist! Scarlett has to learn this to play nice with the Carpetbaggers and Scallywags.

Here's a video tutorial:
https://youtu.be/9v5UxlUg55Y

So I had a crazy happenstance encoutner today that I just had to share with you! I was at training to be a summer advisor for our summer orientation sessions that happen in end of June. The summer faculty advisors then had lunch with the student orientation leaders, and I was talking to one in line for lunch about her study away trip to Rwanda. Then she mentioned something about her high school, Wade Hampton High School, and then before we got our plates I realized she was the student leading the charge to try to get the name of Wade Hampton High School changed away from the Confederate general. Here is her letter to the editor that she wrote in high school. She said that ultimately, there is an actual law on the books protecting its name so the school board did not have the autonomy to be able to make a change but it definitely caused a ripple! And how wonderful that she is a student at my university when we are tackling our legacy within the Confederacy. We need these strong voices!

What a well written letter! Impressive. It's refreshing to see the next generation fighting the good fight.