...where did Auld Lang Syne originate?

My roommates and I just wrapped shooting on a little video project that we're entering in a competition, and it's a parody of one of my all-time favorite movies: It's a Wonderful Life. At the end we're playing the song, "Auld Lang Syne", like they do, and I was wondering what they lyrics mean~



According to Sally:



So anyway. It's Scottish, and according to Merriam-Webster it means "old long ago" and was first used in 1720. The version most people attribute it to is by Scottish poet Robert Burns, but he really just spruced it up like he did with a bunch of old tunes and poems, basically dusting them off, re-introducing them, and sometimes adding or even creating as he went.

Then I found The Morgan Library & Museum. Crazy. It answered all my questions in detail and is really easy to navigate~ if you're lazy, here's a precis: The earliest known ballad containing "Should old acquaintance be forgot" was in 1667 and told a very different story~ that of a lover whose beloved cheated on him. Then another poet, Allan Ramsay, published a more similar piece in 1724; it tells a similar tale but isn't quite as catchy or graceful. It was set later to a traditional Scottish air, but it isn't the melody we know now. The music may have evolved from a Caledonian country dance in the 1760s, was definitely referenced in Shield's comic opera in 1783, Rosina, but was so popular that tons of songs became associated with it, especially some antislavery music in the United States. Basically, Burns "wrote down the song as an old man sang it" (which people appear to think is utter b.s.), then editor George Thomson chose and set it to the song we know today. Boom. Sure, other people as famous as Rudyard Kipling have written new versions, but whatever. We got to the heart of it!

Scotland.org (offical, eh?) offers these lyrics and translation:

Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne.

Chorus

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne,

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae run about the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.

Chorus

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right guid willy waught,
For auld lang syne.

Chorus

Long, Long Ago
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And long, long ago.

Chorus

And for long, long ago, my dear
For long, long ago,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For long, long ago

And surely youll buy your pint-jug!
And surely I'll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For long, long ago.

Chorus

We two have run about the hills
And pulled the daisies fine;
But we've wandered manys the weary foot
Since long, long ago.

Chorus

We two have paddled in the stream,
From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
Since long, long ago.

Chorus

And there's a hand, my trusty friend!
And give us a hand of yours!
And we'll take a deep draught of good-will
For long, long ago.

Chorus

...what to do with leftover duck bits & other scraps?

I had a LOT of time on my hands today. A LOT. And when I'm relaxed and have no obligations (which hasn't been much in awhile) I love cooking, especially getting experimental with it. Lately I've been into using "head to tail" of everything, even veggies. I'm pickling watermelon rind (0), pureeing slightly eh cucumber to make martinis, and keeping carrot/etc peels (which the French call mirepoix) to use to make stock.

The other day at Mariano's I saw whole ducks, so naturally I got one. When I went to roast it yesterday, I became pretty happy that I had some small background in biology because "rinsing" the inside of the duck landed me with what I believe are a heart, kidneys (we have two, right?), perhaps a liver?, and a spinal cord/neck. Blah. The roasting wasn't bad~ the recipe on the packaging was the easiest and SUPER delicious. Basically, you rinse the duck inside/outside with cold water, stick it on a rack in a pan, rub it with a salt/pepper combo, then baste it with a brown sugar/orange juice/berry/soy sauce combo. Roast for 30 min at 350f, then 1.5 hours at 300f. Baste it every 20 minutes. Boom.

The issue here is not the delicious, delicious duck. What do I do with those innards? Clearly the duck killers thought I would like them. So I checked out some recipes and basically I made:

-duck stock using the neck and the leftover bones after we ate, as well as scraps/peels from carrots and onions (1)
-roasted liver & co. which at first I thought were the same thing as gizzards, and learned in the nick of time they are NOT; they are the same as giblets (2, 3)
-duck fat, which I just collected from the pan after roasting (4)

Things I learned:

> You can roast in a glass pan, but it stains it. So put some foil in there and voila! No issue.
> It should get up to an internal temperature, taken at the thickest part of the leg meat, of 160ish.
> There are 4 cups in 1 quart.
> Duck fat as 20%  less saturated fat than butter. :)
> Those leftover carrot/etc. scraps? They're called mirepoix in French. Because of COURSE the French have a cute name for scrappies.

0 Zach and Clay of The Bitten Word
1 Jenn of Jenn Cuisine's recipe
2 Yummly.com
3 Chichi Wang at Serious Eats
4 D'Artagnan

...if I can use these squash innards in my box garden?

Which made me think, Hey! We have coffee grounds, too. And I DEFINITELY remember getting pounds of used coffee grounds from Starbucks('s?) in Texas and sprinkling them around the avocado tree (THAT DIDN'T PRODUCE A SINGLE F-ING AVOCADO in spite of me pruning and sprinkling said coffee grounds. Until the year I moved out, and when I went back, there were so many the new people couldn't give them away fast enough. Like, a Midwest-acorn amount. No, I don't care if avocado trees only fruit (verb?) every few years. That seemed personal.) in our otherwise barren backyard.

Let me preface this by saying that composting seems overwhelming at this point in life and I'll check that out later. So, here's what the research told me:

>Soil should have an organic matter (dead plant and animal bits that are in/on soil but haven't decomposed yet, hereafter referred to as NOMs, thankyouWikipedia :P) of 5-8% (1).

>Don't add more of anything until the original amount decomposes (1). 

And then, for god's sake, all people wanted to talk about was composting. Compost, compost, compost! I don't got time for compost! Or interest! I had to really focus my Googling skills and ask for "adding food scraps directly to garden". Enough about my tiresome quest. Reap the rewards!:

>What I want to do, which I think of as "the lazy girl's NOMs", is also called "trench composting" if it's buried or "sheet composting"or, my favorite, "lasagna composting" if it's just thrown right on top (2). The only issue is that animals might be super interested and dig it up.

>The most useful and happiest discovery was this LESS THAN ONE MINUTE VIDEO from Dillon Seitchik-Reardon of the adorably named Little Veggie Patch Co. BOOM:



1Anna@GreenTalk found this out from Dr. Paul Hepperly at the Rodale Institute.
2Anonymous users on OrganicGardening.com had lots to say about the lazy girl's NOMs.