How to Lime

Welcome to the House of Lime. Once again, I'd like to thank Snavy for starting me down the road to ruin....errr...um .....blogging. I've been having a ton of fun doing the Insane Asylime with you and look forward to continuing it for a long time, or at least until the men in white coats haul us away.

BS, you are right. Blogging is like a bad crack addiction. Here I am barely a month out of the Asylime and starting another one on my own.

I thought I would start by explaining the Lime reference. Those of you who know me from Yahoo! should already remember this. And if any of you forget, well shame on you! You'll be in at recess writing the definition of the infinitive "to lime" 100 times. Even if you know the definition, read on. You may learn something. Pop quizzes may occur from time to time. Now, for the benefit of the few who may shuffle over in their bathrobes from the Asylime....

TO LIME
Trinidadian slang for a group of friends hanging out together. It can be large or small, pre-arranged or impromtu. It often involves food, and ALWAYS requires beverages (not necessarily alcoholic, but it certainly may). It is NEVER a hurried activity. It can occur on a beach, by a river, at someone's home, or on a street corner.

By now you may possibly be wondering what on Earth a small green citrus fruit has to do with a bunch of buddies hanging around. The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago was a British colony until 1962. Trinidad, since it is only 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela, had been originally colonized by Spain as a military outpost from which to launch expeditions for El Dorado. The Brits wrested it away from the Spaniards and, like so many other Caribbean islands, it was turned into a sugar producing colony peopled by African slaves and later by East Indian indentured servants. When the locals would go into the capital (ok yahoo-ers...I'd better hear it in unison) Port of Spain, they'd see British sailors all lollygagging about having a dandy time being unproductive with their mates in the tropical heat. Slang for the Brit sailors was "limey" (since they had to eat limes to prevent scurvy) and hence the Trini slang was coined by the locals watching the foreigners.

True to Trini character, they raised liming (along with calypso, steel pans, and various other things I may address in future posts) to an art form and made it their own. It is not merely a slang term. It is an outlook on life that values good times with good friends and defines a significant part of the culture in Trinidad.

I hope to do more on Trini culture in the future, other cultures too possibly, general reflections on life, show a little bit of who I am besides the humor over at the Asylime. I am open to suggestions and I hope you'll join in.

So, all yuh come in and we gonna make a good lime, eh?