Forum: Author Hangout

If you've got unicode character's mixed in, it could be seeing those as two characters, since unicode uses two bytes per character.

So if anyone knows, I'm all ears.

I am looking for something amusing to say about not having other body parts if you are all ears. Maybe corny, since "ears" of corn is a concept. When all fails, look on line.

"We were walking past the Wonderopolis barn the other day when we overheard an interesting conversation between a couple of cows:

Bessie: Psst! Molly! Can you keep a secret? Come out to the field and I'll tell you.

Molly: No! Not out in the field. Tell me here.

Bessie: Why not out in the field?

Molly: You can't tell a secret out in the field, Bessie! It's a field of corn. There are too many ears!

Bessie: Boo!

Molly: Sorry! Was that joke too corny for you?

We agree with Bessie. That was a bad joke. But it did get us to WONDER about why they're called "ears" of corn. As it turns out, it doesn't have anything to do with the ears on your head.

"Ear" comes from the ancient word "ahs," which meant "husk of corn." In English, sometimes the ear also is referred to as a "cob" or a "pole."

The ear is the spiked part of the corn plant that contains kernels. The kernels are the delicious yellow tidbits we love to nibble on in the summertime.

Each ear of corn is wrapped in a husk. The husk is the green, leafy layer that we peel back before feasting on this summer treat.

Don't feel foolish if you thought an ear of corn had something to do with your ears — you're not alone!

In the 16th century, Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo created a painting he titled "Summer." The painting depicts the head of a man made from seasonal fruits and veggies: peapods for lips, a cucumber nose, peach cheeks, and — you guessed it — ears of corn!

Check out these kernels of corn knowledge:

Every row of corn on a corncob has the same number of kernels.
The average ear of corn has 800 kernels.
You can find corn in more than 3,000 products on your grocery shelves, including cereal, peanut butter, and soft drinks.
Corn is grown on every continent except Antarctica.
More than 50 percent of the corn grown in the United States becomes food for livestock.
The main ingredient in most dry pet food is corn."

"Ear" comes from the ancient word "ahs," which meant "husk of corn." In English, sometimes the ear also is referred to as a "cob" or a "pole."

I find this dubious, as the kind of corn you are talking about, also called maize is native to the Americas and would have been unknown in England until at least the 16th Century.

Not so dubious. No indication there what language the ancient word was stolen from. Could've been Aztec or Mayan or such.

However, 'corn' was actually a common term in english before the modern variety was imported in Europe, and was used for many grains.

However, 'corn' was actually a common term in english before the modern variety was imported in Europe, and was used for many grains.

Not just many grains, all grains. Prior to the importation of maize, "corn" was a generic term for grain. However, other grains wouldn't be associated with husks or cobs.

Bullshit.

Barley has husks.

But cobs, yeah, they're unique.

But cobs, yeah, they're unique.

Bullshit.

Cob is both a kind of loaf and a type of horse, so not unique.

...and a description of a half-assed repair (a cob-job) - I'd guess from the same root as 'cobble together' for a makeshift thing.

Within the limited set (grains) being discussed. Obviously the profession of "cobbler" would indicate that 'cob' as a word existed at some point prior.

On the server side it was counting it as 2 characters (2 bytes).

I'd say 3-per (else 2 chars on 397 is still under 400), especially since the UTF-8 for m-dash is 0xE2 0x80 0x94 (code point 2014)