SC - Americans and corn (was: Food guessing game)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

And it came to pass on 8 May 00,, that CBlackwill at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 5/7/00 7:03:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time, harper at idt.net
> writes:
> 
> >  A surprising number of people stumbled over easy things like corn (I
> >  though most Americans would remember the grade-school stories about the
> >  Indians teaching the settlers to plant corn).
> 
> I think most Americans remember that story (if they went to school at
> all), but I think they also may have considered that Columbus discovered
> America in 1492, and considered it possible that corn (maize) could have
> been in widespread use in Europe by the end of the middle ages (after all,
> who could resist such a fine, sweet and delicious American product??). 

However, I specified that half of the foods on the table were unknown in 
Europe until Columbus and other explorers brought them back from the 
New World.  Therefore, the people who were getting corn wrong were 
identifying it as a pre-Columbian European food.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net