11.27.08
Partially sage, Rosemary and thyme
The 11/23/08 installment of the Frazz comic strip begins with this exchange (at least in some papers it does; it is a Sunday intro panel that papers can eliminate for space):
Young female student (looking at open books): “There’s only one word that rhymes with ‘rhyme,’ that’s spelled like ‘rhyme.’”
Frazz: “A sage observation, Rosemary.”
I admire the delicate touch employed by cartoonist Jeff Mallett. Here he didn’t need to flap the word thyme at us like a semaphore flag; in fact, he didn’t use the word at all. But we know it anyway.
And everything we know about English is wrong. Have I established that yet?
Let me allow you to digest the fact that another word spelled like rhyme also rhymes with rhyme. And once digested, that fact will be chyme. In two literal senses. Chyme, you see, is the intermediate substance that results when your stomach’s gastric juices partially digests food, including herbs, leading to partial sage, rosemary and . . . thyme.
(And happy Thanksgiving!)
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and 
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JohnnyB said,
November 27, 2008 at 8:36 am
If I may chime in: this food related lesson is seasonally appropriate. Happy Thanksgiving to you.