In addition to the positive youth message (which we all hope will curtail many a beef start), I noticed the word "Oxalis" on the door header. According to the internet, there are two oxalises on earth; one is a plant genus and the other is Oxalis Atindriyaratri Suwaryono, an Indonesian woman.
According to the official website of the Oxalis plant, it is "the largest genus in the wood sorrel family, Oxalidaceae. The name is derived from the Greek word, OXYS, or sour and refers to the acidic taste of the foliage."
This did not clear up anything. Fortunately, I am a proud member of the Cincinnati Museum Center so I checked the Cincinnati History Library where I found Joseph James' "Catalogue of the Flowering Plants, Ferns and Fungi Growing in the Vicinity of Cincinnati" in the April 1879 Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History in which he catalogs the yellow and violet wood sorrels. In 1904 Walter Aiken also submitted an article mentioning the same two.
It still doesn't clear up much, but my guess is that this building is named "Oxalis" because that's what used to grow there before it was uprooted to put up the building. It's the same system land developers apply to their developments (Sycamore Glen, Cherry Grove, etc.). I was surprised that the system has been in place for so long (this building was built in 1909).
3 comments:
Great photo. I had never seen [or maybe hadn't noticed] oxalis until I moved to California, where it's really common. I loved it, but the locals regarded it as a common pest.
damn it i thought this was going to be a recipe for oxtails
In the course of my extensive, in-depth, and time-consuming background research, I also came across oxalis fans defending the plant against those who regard it as a weed.
OXTAIL: Never had it, need to try it. Lately I've been thinking about cooking up a beef tongue, though.
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