Jet Black

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who’s this?

Harrison.

And where are you calling from, Harrison?

San Diego.

Okay.

Well, what’s on your mind?

So I was reading this book by Michael Pollan called The Botany of Desire.

Oh, he’s great, isn’t he?

I really enjoyed it.

Yeah.

And I was reading about the tulip and had this obsession that the Dutch had with the tulip.

Right.

And he quotes Alexander Dumas writing about this story about a tulip.

And I know this is translated, but it said, the whole of the flower was as black and shining as jet.

And I realize this is a translation, but it started me thinking, jet black.

You know, where does that word, where does jet black come from?

Because, you know, jets aren’t black.

I’ve never seen a black jet.

Jet is a kind of hard stone.

It’s related to coal.

It’s a product of the earth and of a plant life that once existed on this earth.

And it’s a type of lignite.

And you can cut it up and polish it.

You know what? I have to confess that when I was growing up, I thought it had to do with either skid marks on the runway or the stuff coming out of the back of a jet.

Oh, no, no.

It’s hundreds of years old.

I think the earliest uses we have of it, and we originally get it from old French, are 600 years old easily.

So it’s been around a long time.

Yeah, that is older than the Dutch obsession with tulips.

Yeah, tulipomania. That was a crazy time, huh?

I wasn’t there.

But it sounds for reading his book as though it was.

Michael’s got a particular way of writing where he can take big historical events, and Michael Pollan, that is, and kind of condense them down so they’re comprehensible.

Because going crazy over tulip bulbs just seems so foreign to us, right?

Yeah, giving away all your property, your whole estate for one tulip, I mean, you know, amazing.

Right.

Well, thank you so much for your call, Harrison.

I hope we’ve helped.

Yeah, my pleasure.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Love your show.

Bye-bye.

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