Monday, October 29, 2012

Holy Cannoli

Cannoli are Sicilian pastry desserts. In much of the U.S. or Canada, whether you have one or a dozen, you call it/them cannoli. No differential for singular or plural, which is great when one doesn’t wish to admit how many one has devoured. This is apparently not the case for other counties as many do not speak English and I speak no other language.

'Holy cannoli' happens to be one of my favorite sayings.

My husband can’t stand cannoli. Not the pastry, the word. It doesn’t conform to the ‘rules’ of grammar regarding singular and plural usage.
Roll the dice. Two or more. Roll just one and it’s a die. One little annoying rodent is a mouse. And there is never just one. They are always multiplying, but are not mouses. They become mice. Though they do rhyme with dice, just one (preferably dead) is not a mie.
One large feathery fowl is goose, but geese are two or more and a single fowl is the same as many fowl. Meese is not multiple moose. Moose is both singular and plural, as is/are deer and sheep. Deep is intensified to deeper or deepest while a fungus becomes fungal, fungi or funguses. Multiple visual orbs are eyes, but upon waking you are blurry-eyed. Audio stimulus becomes stimuli which you hear, your ear hears, or you heard, and has nothing whatsoever to do with moose herds. Or a herd. Oh dear. Or maybe deer.
Whooooaaaah! Did someone just call 'foul'? Or is that fouled? Maybe fouls. Or a multiple foul. Unless it smells. Then it is just foul, even if it involves various smells. Whatever: my hubby thinks it all stinks.

In the words of Mr. Jinks, "I hate those meeces to pieces!"
The blog Life with Aspergers has a great post "Aspergers and Rules" about this.
Rigidity. Resistance to change. Binding rule sets. Things that can all lead to confusion, conflict and even possible depression.
I especially enjoyed reading some of the comments on that blog post. My favorite was:
“Thanks for this. I was always impressed by my Aspie husband's "discipline" and after reading this I understand that it is just his strict adherence to the rules he has. Now, if only I can use these rules to make him do what I want... :) Cheers!
Indeed, dear ‘Mish’.  Please let me know if you were successful.
Laugh out loud!

8 comments:

  1. I came here via Asperger's Webring.

    My husband claims that he feels that he is on the spectrum. I don't know. I do know that he has this weird rule about putting nails on the wall for pictures. After years of crying about it, he finally relented and put 2 nails in. I'm sure it still bugs him. In fact, he used extra strength velcro to hang a coat rack on the wall.

    I have to wonder if that qualifies as a "rule."

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    1. one thing i've noticed about aspergers is there is no absolute 'rule' that applies to every aspie! it seems the most noticeable indicators are lack of social skills, failure to recognize facial expressions & body language in others, inability to empathize with others, intense single interest in a subject to the exclusion of life around them, general awkwardness and clumsiness... these are markers in my husband, at least - there can also be components of ocd, anxiety, depression - my hubby will not trust that a door is locked, for instance - he will check and double check the handle, sometimes rattling it so hard back and forth that i think the knob will come off! "just making sure it's locked" he always will say... yes, dear! love you!!

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  2. A singular canolli is a canollo or canollu. They do have plural and singular versions, it's just that most Americans don't know the proper terminology in patisserie and cuisine from other cultures.

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    1. i am so sorry - the canadian whose blog i used (http://gracessweetlife.com/2010/06/cannoli-siciliani-the-ultimate-italian-pastry/) apparently is as unknowledgable as us 'americans' - i shall update a.s.a.p. - thx for your correction

      what country are you from / now reside in? how many years have you been married to your aspie? can you email a link to your blog so i can see how you successfully manage your relationship?

      thank you for sharing...

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    2. also, i just checked the term "patisserie"

      A pâtisserie is the type of French or Belgian bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets. In both countries it is a legally controlled title that may only be used by bakeries that employ a licensed maître pâtissier (master pastry chef)



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    3. Why did you make the assumption that I'm not knowledgeable? I am Italian and fully aware of the singular form unfortunately most people searching for the recipe will use the search term, Cannoli therefore I've used the term known to most. In fact, I believe I've written about the reference in one of my posts. Also you'll find "Cannoli" is widely used across Italy as well. Another thing to keep in mind, the name for a particular dessert or pastry often varies from one town to another.

      Have a great day.

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    4. oh dear grace - totally tongue in cheek! 'most americans' in the above comment by anonymous was actually aimed at you since i was referencing your blog - but their comment didn't say that 'most canadians don't know the proper terminology' - i am not sure why we were being scolded at all since they didn't know the proper usage of their own terms!

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    5. and all of which gets totally away from the original point that many aspies are unable to process communication because of confusing words with multiple meanings (at least in american english, which is the only language i speak, unfortunately)

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