General questions for americans

Letty I'm not gonna even hazard what that means

Ok, Don. I will dedicate a song to you on the radio thread and maybe you can get the idea. Hope you like country music.

I'm not sure either.

I know there's a difference between a poke and a paper bag, but a paper poke?

I alway picture a poke made out of cloth, like flour sack cloth.

don....a poke (to me) is a bag you can sling over or around your shoulder, to tote stuff in.

Of course, when you pick poke salet, you tote it in your poke.



Here's a terrific song about poke salet...



written by Tony Joe White
Originally recorded by Tony Joe White
Also recorded by Elvis Presley


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If some of ya'll never been down South too much...
I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this,
So that you'll understand what I'm talking about
Down there we have a plant
That grows out in the woods and the fields,
Looks somethin' like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Poke salad. Poke salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and
she'd go out in the evenings and pick a mess of it...
Carry it home and cook it for supper,
'Cause that's about all they had to eat,
But they did all right.

[sung]
Down in Louisiana
Where the alligators grow so mean
There lived a girl that I swear to the world
Made the alligators look tame

Poke salad Annie, poke salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was working on the chain-gang
(A mean, vicious woman)

Everyday 'fore supper time
She'd go down by the truck patch
And pick her a mess o' polk salad
And carry it home in a tote sack

Poke salad Annie, 'gators got you granny
Everybody said it was a shame
'Cause her mama was aworkin' on the chain-gang
(a wretched, spiteful, straight-razor totin' woman,
Lord have mercy. Pick a mess of it)

Her daddy was lazy and no count
Claimed he had a bad back
All her brothers were fit for
Was stealin' watermelons out of my truck patch


Poke salad Annie, the gators got your granny
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her mama was a working' on the chain gang
(Sock a little polk salad to me, you know I need a mess of it)

The first shoots of pokeweed in the spring are delicious. Then the plant becomes toxic and the berries are poisonous.

http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Pokeweed&spell=1

I'm going to Italy today Letty so I probably wont hear your country music unless it's still there in a fortnight

Have a nice time, Don!

Ah, two weeks in Italy. Enjoy, Don, and ciao.