Magyar Monday: Water Cooler Chat
18 February, 2013
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the Generous Offerings of a Diligent Observer with a Vigorous Imagination
Clarissa Whitehorn
Shouts and Murmurs
Nimble Hill on Happy Tea Time Violet Plum on Popeye en Español Courtney Raemer on Frank Lloyd Wright’s… 
the Diligent Observer 
D’ya think that now they chew the fat after getting out of their pick up trucks at the local
het – tizenegy?
Those cloaks look rather warm. In a good way.
Dadork: I think that might be the modern equivalent–probably in jean jackets rather than sheepskin cloaks. If they were in Philly, maybe they’d go to Liba* instead of Het – Tizenegy.
Donnahardees: Those coats were the H-O-T item for cowboys, shepherds and the army. Please recall the Hortobagy Shepherd in His “Furs”:
‘These fur coats are now in such demand by the armies in the field that Hungary and all the countries of Southeastern Europe have forbidden the further export of these skins.’’
*Liba is ‘Goose’ in Hungarian; Goose is the Ojibwe word for ‘Wawa’. A long winded joke.
Finally, someone breaks down the origin of the name “Wawa”. This Reader is grateful, if a tad skeptical that Wawa’s founding fathers had the Ojibwe in mind…
Actually they founders of Wawa sort of did have the Ojibwe in mind. Wawa (the town that the dairy farm and, later, convenience store was named after) was originally known as Pennellton and Grubb’s Bridge. When Edward Worth built an estate here in the early 18th century, he named it “Wawa”, the Ojibwe word for “wild goose” because of the flocks of geese attracted to the still water behind the nearby Lenni mill dam. The name had been transferred to the town by 1884..Why did Ed Worth know Ojibwe? He read the The Song of Hiawatha and learned it there. Longfellow DID have the Ojibwe in mind! … Oh how I love the internet!
“When Edward Worth built an estate here in the early 18th century,” — that’s some trick considering that he wasn’t born until 1843, acc to John W. Jordan’s History of Delaware County and Its People, page 726. Edward Worth became, in 1887, the president of a very prosperous feldspare mining company and apparently was still alive in 1914. I have not found an exact date for his building his home which he named Wawa but, as he was 12 years old when Longfellow’s Hiawatha was published, he had that Indian word for wild goose readily available to him (no matter that Delaware County had originally been inhabited by the Algonquin Indians and Longfellow was using the vocabulary of the Ojibwe who lived neard the Great Lakes).
WOW–Dadork, you did an impressive amount of research! I’m delighted to learn more about the Best Convenience Store in the World, my beloved Wawa.
Donnahardees, do you know from where the name ‘Skyline’ comes?
Correct preposition use in your honor.
Hang on, DO – am still absorbing the Wawa data. Stay tuned re: Skyline. Because I most certainly do know its origins….
And I am most appreciative of your respect for preposition placement.