Friday, September 4, 2009

Sometimes It's Nice

I am happy to announce that I have been awarded the Jnan Chandra Medal for 2008 by the Association for Plant Taxonomy (India). One of the people who nominated me was Dr. S. K. Jain, former Director of the Botanical Survey of India who has always been most generous in his support for my research into flora and fauna in the Pali Tipitaka. The medal is ‘awarded every two years to a scholar for his or her research publications on the cultural, religious or mythological aspects of plants in Indian life’. Now I want to make it clear that the Jnan Chandra Medal is not the Nobel Prize of botany or anything like that, and that plant taxonomy is a pretty esoteric field. Nonetheless, sometimes it’s nice to get some recognition for the contribution one makes to any particular field of knowledge.
On another subject - a woman in Arizona recently found the letters G, O and D on three slices of salami after she toasted them. Dubbed a ‘miracle’, curious and devote people are coming from all over to see the holy salami slices and the woman is now looking for ways to preserve them. I wonder why she didn’t read the letters as DOG or even OGD, which is the Sami word for underpants?

8 comments:

reasonable said...

Must be someone, without the knowledge of the woman, who carved those letters before she fried them.

David (TheDhamma.com) said...

Maybe GOD was the pig that was slaughtered for here meal? OMG, oh my goodness, I didn't even get the chance to say good-bye.

Congratulations on the botanical award!

dyannne said...

Dear Bhante, First, congratulations on your award! Your love of learning and all that you share on this blog is a great gift. I am so happy for your official acknowledgement.
Second, I laughed out loud reading your second musing. "Why didn't she read OGD which is the Sami word for underpants?" I have not heard a better retort for the plethora of "miracle" food items which we in the U.S. hear about CONSTANTLY!

dmkorman said...

Let me join in the congratulations. I am confident that the award is well deserved. As to the salami, perhaps "the rest of the story" is (as one reader suggests) it was placed on the meat by a prankster, and the next four slices consist of the letters "f,o,o,d."

Branko said...

Dear Bhante,
congratulations on this well deserved prize. And this is not the only one, since I'm sure many readers of this blog have already awarded you with the gold medal long time ago. Keep up the good work.

Metta

Unknown said...

it reads more like "GOO" to me. lol

aah-haa said...

hahaha, the letters appeared to be formed by squirting dark soya sauce from a bottle (similar to squirting mustard on a hotDOG). Anyone silly enough to believe an intelligent GOD would appear in salami slices is truly not wearing OGD.

MidPath said...

Congratulations Vernerable Sir