Hodgepodge
Yesterday, I used the word “hodgepodge” in a sentence and wondered later what that word really meant and where it came from. So I Googled it. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a heterogeneous mixture” while Wikipedia reports it is derived from the Middle English word hochepot, which is a “dish of many mixed ingredients, especially mutton broth with vegetables.”
Further reading informed me of a fictitious rabbit character in the comic “Bloom County” named “Hodge-Podge” who is “extremely conservative and fanatical about most things, though often ignorant and naive about just what those things are.” He later had “an affair with Rosebud the Basselope, resulting in Rosebud’s pregnacy with jackabasselopes.”
There is, of course, hodgepodge.com, an apparent placeholder domain for a mysterious startup called Product Pipe, Inc. They are seeking investment capital in case you may be interested.
There are the Hodge Podge Cottages located on Caddo Lake in Uncertain, TX. Caddo Lake’s claim to fame is to be “the only natural lake in Texas and by far the most mysterious.” I’m quite sure it is.
And don’t forget the Hodgepodge Society, who’s website invites you to “Please, by all means, depress our royal crest to enter.” Perhaps another time.
So as you can see, a hodgepodge of information about the word “hodgepodge” is available to you should you seek it. In fact, one might say the Internet is a great hodgepodge of information which does, in many ways, resemble mutton broth with vegetables, or perhaps a litter of jackabasselopes.
Until next time…