by zbicyclist

Velvet

Jack Applin sends this in: “In the final panel, Maria implies an incongruence between Ms. Velvet’s name and her rocking the color green. I would understand if her name were “Scarlett” or “Violet”, because those colors are not green. However, what’s the conflict between velvet and green? Is the cloth velvet associated with a particular color? Some cultural thing that I’m missing?”

And, if Ms. Velvet had a daughter born in 2010, would the daughter be Ms. Velveteen?

by zbicyclist

Chewing Twice

Mitch4 sends this in: “I figured it must be an idiomatic expression, and a lookup confirmed it. But I had never before run across it in the wild.”

Your editor hasn’t heard this one, either. Mayor McGuffey’s name doesn’t sound German, so I guess we can’t call him a sour kraut.

There’s a suggestion here that this is a combination of two sayings: “I don’t chew my cabbage twice – Response when someone asks you to repeat what you just said. This phrase is probably a combination of: I don’t chew my baccer (tobacco) twice and I don’t boil my cabbage twice.“

I have no doubt that chewing tobacco twice would be unpleasant. Chewing tobacco at all sounds unpleasant. But what about boiling cabbage twice?

What Happens if You Boil Cabbage Twice

Boiling cabbage twice — or overboiling it — can significantly affect its texture, flavor, and nutritional value.

Texture and flavor changes
The first boiling softens cabbage, but a second boiling (or extended cooking) makes it mushy, limp, and less appetizing. Overcooked cabbage can also develop an unpleasant odor and lose its natural sweetness and crunch voyoeats.com+1.

Nutrient loss
Cabbage contains heat- and water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B vitamins, which are sensitive to prolonged cooking. Boiling it for more than 5–7 minutes can deplete up to 75% of vitamin C and reduce sulforaphane precursors by over 50% thelivinglook.com. A second boiling compounds this loss, reducing the health benefits.

Health considerations
Overboiling can also break down compounds that may interfere with thyroid function, especially in people with hypothyroidism eatandgeek.com. While this is more relevant to raw cabbage, repeated boiling increases exposure to these compounds.

How to avoid the problem

  • Limit cooking time: For shredded cabbage, 5 minutes; for wedges, up to 10 minutes