Oxymoron: Amish Cook

Monday, April 30 South Bend Tribune.
From “The Amish Cook”, by Lovina Eicher

...Jacob’s family had a good supper of barbequed chicken, steamed potatoes, cheese, dandelion salad, and hard-boiled eggs…(gourmands of the prairies!) …After lunch they ended up taking one of their sons, Jacob Jr.,7, to the emergency room…(coincidence or simply ironic?)…He ended up being admitted… (sounds like everybody’s end is up)
…He just started getting sick on Saturday, so it overtook him very quickly…(elegant prose, eh?)…It seems we have to get a new mower… (oh! the humanity!)…If it’s not one thing it’s another, but that’s life…(more accurately that is 2 clichés separated by a comma)… If things would always go easy, we’d soon forget about our Heavenly Father’s great power…(God never could maintain the equipment)… I like doing the garden when I can go barefoot… (hookworm might explain the odd theology and sub 5th grade writing style) … Anyone have a recipe for coconut macaroon pie or carrot pie?…(983 hits on Google for the coconut macaroon pie. 9,710 hits for carrot pie. Who knew?)

Following is an added response to Amish Cook fans:

The agent of the Amish Cook perhaps took this blog a little too seriously! This was posted at the Oasis Newsfeatures website this weekend:
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Hmmm, Should I Be Offended or Amused?Published on May 20, 2007 by Kevin Williams in Blog
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“Okay, it's a slow blog day and while just randomly surfing through cyberspace, I stumbled upon this bizarre blog entry from a writer in the tiny town of Knox, Indiana. Apparently the writer had nothing better to do than dissect the Amish Cook's writing style, or, in her opinion, lack thereof. I always tell editors before they subscribe to the column, that Lovina's writing is never going to win a Pulitzer Prize for literary excellence, but that isn't the point of the column. The column's main mission is to connect people in today's fast-paced whirling world to a time when life was a little simpler and less materialistic. Some of the writer's points were humorous: she was correct in pointing out the double cliche. That wasn't one of Lovina's strongest journalistic moments. I wasn't quite as amused when she started making veiled references to the lack of education. With all candor, I've met many Amish who are as well-read or are as successful of a entrepreneur with their eighth grade education as I have people with college degrees. So, anyone else have any thoughts? Should I be amused at the entry? Or offended?”
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Knox Indiana only wishes to say that there is such a thing as quality. To some folks quality doesn't matter nearly so much as the intent. For example they might say, "It's the thought that counts." when they have to defend bad quality. I don't think that is a valid defense for poor quality in a public, professional, journalistic setting. I didn't know what degree of education the Amish tended to have, so Kevin's "veiled reference" is imaginary. It was, in fact, an unveiled reference to the actual level of quality of the writing of "The Amish Cook". Although I haven't actually witnessed a well-read Amish person, I really have no doubt that it might be possible that there be such a person. Certainly Lovina does NOT rise to that description. It would be quite nice "to connect people in today's fast-paced whirling world to a time when life was a little simpler and less materialistic." But I think that statement pretty much says, "It's the thought that counts".

BTW: Somebody needs to tell Lovina how to use the word "good". For example: The garden isn't growing good, it is growing well. That she should have gotten in 5th grade, or at least from Kevin.