Good morning. Today is primidi, the 1st of Thermidor, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate l'épeautre, a special and longstanding cultivar of wheat.
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That hexaploid wheat we met just two days ago is typically common wheat, Triticum aestivum. There is only one other hexaploid wheat, and that's spelt, Triticum spelta, although there's some debate as to whether spelt is its own species or a variety of common wheat. Spelt requires less fertilizer than common wheat, but has a lower maximum yield. This need for less fertilizer made it the most popular form of wheat for quite some time in hardscrabble Northern Europe, where it was also used to make beer and vodka, but it was nearly relegated to the history books once modern farming techniques were able to bring out the full potential of common wheat. Now, it's marketed mainly as a traditional bread in Germany and Austria (countries that sometimes have a disturbingly strong interest in tradition) or a more organic food in the United States, given its need for less pesticide and fertilizer.
People forget that the majority of Gallagher's comedy routine was not smashing fruit or even showing off gigantic props, even those were indubitably the most memorable and popular aspects of his act. Anyone who sat through an hour of Gallagher in person or on television would get eye-popping acts of zany prop comedy sprinkled among frequent tirades about spelling. These were often watered down (in terms of creativity, the vitriol was actually ramped up) versions of jokes already written and told by George Carlin, our other master comedian on the topic of spelling. So, in their memory, how do you spell the past participle of spell? Is it spelt like spelled or spelled like spelt?
