The world of agriculture and the world of words collide again this week, as they often do in this space.
In the world of words, recent zig-zagging of American cattle industry personnel across the border brought to mind a host of similar zig-zag kinds of words, the so-called ricochet words. Repetition and a wee twist of letters, and you’ve got some super-duper descriptions. Hocus-pocus, for example.
In the world of agriculture, the aforementioned American emissaries toured Canadian feedlots and feed mills and went home again to write reports and recommendations regarding the reopening of the border to Canadian cattle.
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Last week, it was a group from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. This week, representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture are here to examine feed regulations and Canadian compliance to same.
All this zig-zagging prompts the thought that maybe Canada should send its own delegations to examine the American cattle industry. Since our American friends have never discovered any home-grown cases of BSE, it would be handy for us to find out how they do it. Tit for tat, as it were.
Of course, as the Americans were, we’d be polite about it.
We wouldn’t rush down there all harum-scarum or higgledy-piggledy, because the hurly-burly approach would not impress our American friends. Keen as they are on their own national razzle-dazzle, they likely expect something more wishy-washy, or possibly even namby-pamby, from their Canadian neighbours.
We Canadians, equipped with whatever gew-gaws we felt necessary for the trip, would take a gentle approach, as is our nature. We would hem and haw a bit before getting down to any chit-chat. We would likely ply the Yanks with chip dip and bonbons first and then impress them with just a teeny-weeny bit of hoity-toity diplomacy.
Just short of appearing airy-fairy in our plan, we would shilly-shally politely into the mish-mash of American feedlots and feed mills and feed regulations.
Would this exercise require a slim jim? Hopefully not, but who knows what hubble-bubble might ensue if we had to subject our American friends to the true rip-rap strength of Canadian curiousity?
Not that we’d expect to find any flim-flam at this late date. Fric and frac, at most.
And even if that were the case, we’d never resort to that most famous Canadian ricochet word coined by a hippy-dippy former prime minister.
Fuddle duddle? No, we’d never say that.
