The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-24
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

l scientific, pnlloSophicdl UT PSy
 cal, but just plain fooling.
 was brought to wondering about the way my mind goes off at a tam gent by little couplet in Dolly Dai- rvmple's article on Ysaye, the Viohn virtuoso and conductor. which appeared in a recent issue of this paper with tbe protesoue caricature of him astride his stand.
 had just finished looking over Gu l1inary Crinkles. the attractive cooA hook nut out by the ladies or the church of the Adven. and To ana
 behold Dolly had started her interVie~ with the musical genius by referring to his fondness for the great fahAee
 breakfast piece de resistance the
 homely apple pie.
 Rut even this would never have set my mind in motion to beat out column if she had not introduced the following lines
 An apple pie without cheese Is like a kiss without squeeze
 I do not know the author ot the above. but whoever it was, man or
 woman, it's one of the best of it's Kind lin existence, for it sa description
 which describes and before get
 through I will show the close connec-
 tion between the two.
 Then came the play of wits between
 inc noted artist and man of the world
 and the charming writer of the Age
 Herald family, who quickly addeo'
 after quoting the couplet, that perhaps
 he did not quite understand the
 meaning in his tongue to be told in
 French that he understood in all Ilanguages. I suppose he said this on the same theory that as the cry of the habv is the same around the world. so
 lovers are able to comprehend all the
 nuances of filtration in a kind of in , Iternationa1 volapuk. ''Tis an old rat that won't eat cheese"
 Just at present I am not so much interested in cheese as an article Of
 daily food as I am in some of the mean ings attached to the word and of some | of the curious customs which have
 grown up around it. I wonder if Dolly knew when she was saucily stringing
 the distinguished visitor on his love for apple pie that time was when it
 was the custom in society to make low
 courtesies known as "cheeses." l am , sure she did. for there are mighty few things she does not know.
 Choosing" got it's name from the in- Hated appearance of the dress in the : days when in whirling around and courtesying according to De Quincey,
 the petticoat was inflated like bal loon. (Some of us can remember the : days of the hoopskirt.) Any way, Thackery says in The Virginians. Choosing was such a deep ceremonial
 courtesy as you never see at present (such a thing being impossible in the { tight skirts of the twentieth century,. She and her sister both made these cheeses' in compliment to the new conner, and with much stately agility. 
 wonder if this is where we got that
 classic phrase which is so often in the
 mouths of good Americans. "Oh, cheese . it" They say if we will only go back to Shakespeare we can find much of
 our modern pet slang, but not having a Shakesperean concordance at hand
 I can not verify the fact of his hav- ing used choosing" in any of his plays. know, however, that some h rf Ia in dulged in the slang expression by speaking of what pleased them as be
 ing quite the cheese" and while we
 rarely hear it in this form at present, : it's a current comment to speak of a r fellow as thinking The is the whole
 cheese"
 But if you search deep enough you 5 can generally find how such express
 sions had their origin. cheese to be quite the cheese" according to Tus- ser, had to be without the following ten defects To be perfect it should not be like CD Gehazi i. e., dead white, , like leper: CD not like Lots wife. all
 salt; C3) not like Argus, full of eyes; (4) not like Tom Piper. "hoven and puffed,' like the cheeks of a piper; (5)
 not like Crispin, leathery; (6) not like Lazarus, poor; CD not like Esau.
 hairy; not like Mary Magdalene. full of , whey or maudlin; (9) not like the Gen. tiles, full of maggots or gentils: and
 (1O) not like bishop. made of burnt e milk" This selection is taken from ] Five Hundred Points on Good Hus- e bandry
 But the strangest use I have found of the word is in it's being used in the t sense of choose. for in one of the anti q quarian volumes I find it set down Cheese. Something choice tAnglo- . Saxon, ceos-an, to choose; German. kiesen; French, choisir). Chaucer says, TO cheese whether she would him e marry or not" I reckon every hus- = band who gets this meaning of the
 word will pray that in case that for
 his wife, "he is the whole cheese" that r wives are bit suspicious and it's hard . to make them believe that even the moon is made of green cheese" for there is a man in 1t.
 $ There is a well known tale which
 comes down to us of the man who
 chose his wife out of three sisters by
 the way they ate their cheese One P pared it-she Che said) was mean; one
 cut it off extravagantly thick, she was ' wasteful; the third sliced it off in a medium way. and he took her This . is where we get the expression, "cheese P pairing economy" I put this in here as this happens to be Thrift Week and want to boost it all I can with the S hope that those who have the making . of the taxes will learn the art of