Disambiguation of Algarrobo

The three known in English as carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) is called in Spanish algarrobo. Carab tree pods where mentioned in the Bible in the parable of the Prodigal Son, who have wasted his inheritance and became a servant looking after pigs, and even envying them for the carob pods they ate. When the early Spanish-speaking explorers arrived to South America they saw forests of Mesquite (Prosopis sp.) with white sweet pods, and so they referred to them as algarrobo, because they were similar to European Carab tree also having sweet pods. Even today this is the common name still used in parts of South America.

Disambiguation of the word oriole and blackbird

Yellow birds members of the family Oriolidae where called orioles in 1770-1780 due to their color, because the word oriole originates from the Middle Latin variant of aureolus meaning golden. This family is confined to the Old World. Early explorers coming to North America saw birds that were yellow with black markings that resembled those they had in Old World. They were English-speaking people and so they called these birds orioles. Coming back to Europe they were bringing along specimens of these birds, and European taxonomists determined that these New World Orioles did not belong to the family Oriolidae, so they called the new family Icteridae, using a Greek word for a yellow bird ikterus (this word also applies to jaundice). Whereas family Oriolidae contains only two genera - Old World orioles and figbirds, in the New World family Icteridae there are 25 genera (7 genera are known in Southern California, represented by 10 species: Great-tailed Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Tricolored Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Western Meadowlark, Scott's Oriole, Bullock's Oriole, Hooded Oriole).
In spite of the fact that word blackbird appears in a number of common names for icterid species, this word also involves an ambiguity. In Europe there is a common bird referred to in English language as a blackbird (Turdus merula). Turdus is a genus within family Turdidae, which includes many and various thrushes throughout the world. The generic name Turdus originates from Latin word turd meaning thrush, and merula comes from another Latin word merul meaning blackbird. the french name for blackbird is Merle noir.

Nuts about Nuts

Recently I have read an article Cracking the Code in Washington Post (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR2007010900609.html)and it prompted me to share my experience with nuts as a considerably important part in my diet. To complement the price that I pay for nuts I have 2 nut trees of my own: a macadamia tree and a pecan tree. We have learned that macadamias have the shortest shelf-life of any nuts that we use due to the high content of unsaturated fatty acids. On the other extreme are cashew nuts, which even purchased in pieces have been in our refrigerator for over 4 years without any signs of rancidity or deterioration. As a general rule tropical fruit and nuts have a very short shelf-life, whereas the cashew presents the opposite case having a long storage time.