Brainstorming about history, politics, literature, religion, and other topics from a 'gypsy' scholar on a wagon hitched to a star.
I've just discovered that the idiom "a hard row to hoe" has a specific literal meaning at its origin: to hoe a row is to turn a line of soil for planting. I knew the expression came from gardening, but I hadn't connected it with a specific step in the gardening process. I guess my brain makes for a hard row to hoe, but somebody's been at it, for look at all those furrows!
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 6:14 AM
4 comments
I am a retired professor. I last taught at Ewha Womans University, mostly composition, research writing, and cultural issues, but also the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history. My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism. I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested. I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries. Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."
4 Comments:
So what makes the row-hoeing "hard"? The presence of stones?
"Furrows" in French = les sillons
The last line of the first verse of the Marseillaise:
"...qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons."
= "...that [the] impure blood [of the enemy] should water our furrows."
Sounds like something a wall-building people might sing. And yet the French are so damn friendly....
Speaking of stones: a few years back, I finally learned what a "harrow" was. If your row is hard to hoe because of too many stones, maybe it's time to bring out the harrow! And that's how I gained a new appreciation for the expression "a harrowing experience."
This ought to fill your furrows!
Jeff's furrow filler.
Wait, didn't you say my blood, sweat, and tears would help hallow this soil?
Jeffery Hodges
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It's a Halloween experience, Carter.
Jeffery Hodges
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