Blinky Cheese

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Sarah Sturzant. I am calling from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Welcome to the program.

Hi, Sarah.

What’s on your mind?

So, I thought about you when I was considering my mom. My mom grew up in southern Ohio, and whenever she encountered some food that she thought might be sort of going bad or spoiling, she’d say, this is Blinky. And we were all together staying at a beach house in North Carolina once, and she said that in the whole place, bust out in laughter. No one had ever heard that. Maybe read the credits on the Blink, but the idea of Blinky just seemed really funny, and that’s one of the ways we remember my mom is to get that word. So I thought I’d ask you about it.

So what exactly was Blinky? Was it milk or?

Actually, it was the pimento cheese spread that she was making. Pimento cheese spread smells blinky even when it’s fresh.

No, actually, you’re right. And for my mother to even be concerned that something with blinky is amazing because she’d practically eat anything. You’d have to have mold growing on it. But she smelled that and said, I think this is blinky.

On the blink isn’t that far from blinky, right?

Well, no, I guess not. I think everyone would understand blinky if you already knew on the blink.

Yeah.

But why are we blinking at food?

Well, exactly. I mean, the way it was explained to me when I was younger was that if you’re opening up a carton of milk and you’re smelling it and holding it up to your face, you’re going to start blinking. Your eyes will start watering, tearing up.

Yeah.

However, that is a folk etymology.

Yes. Yes, the actual etymology seems to have something to do with the idea of blink meaning to turn sour, like sour milk, from the idea of sort of the evil eye, you know, exercising an evil influence or bewitching the milk.

Oh, sure. You know, something’s afoot. Somebody made that milk turn sour.

So the devil has cast his stern gaze upon my meal.

Upon my pimento cheese.

Upon my pimento cheese and turned it blinky.

And the pimento cheese is so important at the beach house.

Oh, isn’t it?

Yeah.

Yeah. That’s close to a crisis, isn’t it? If you’re down pimento cheese.

That’s a very Southern Ohio thing to have. And so when we all get together, all of the children have all spread around. But coming back together, that’s the thing that you eat that is very reminiscent of my mom and of Southern Ohio.

Oh, really?

Pimento cheese.

Yeah.

So you had to eat a lot more beef and noodles then?

No, beef and noodles is not a thing that has resumption to me.

Oh, really?

Okay.

All right. I thought that was an Ohio thing.

So you let the pimento loaf sit out all day, and then at dinner time, everyone raises a slice to mom and says, here’s to Blinky.

It’s not pimento loaf.

Oh, okay. It’s like cheddar cheese with pimentos and God only knows what else, made into a dip that you eat on saltine.

Oh, okay. Apparently they didn’t make it across the Mississippi to my part of Missouri.

Oh, my gosh. And the color. The color is amazing. It’s like the color of a, I don’t know, Howard Johnson’s roof or something. You know, a highway construction cone.

Well, it depends on the cheese, but it can be really vivid, yeah.

Yes, vivid. And so that was the thing that was meant to be Blinky.

All right, well.

So I like the evil eye idea as being the etymology. You know, I’m getting ready to go home, and so I can’t wait to report on Blinky.

That’s great. Sarah, well, I’m glad you have one of those linguistic heirlooms and that you celebrate it with us.

Thanks for calling, Sarah. Bye-bye.

Well, what family language and lore do you talk about around the dinner table? Call us with it, 877-929-9673, or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.