Skip navigation

On naming coworkers

Sometimes I like to talk about my coworkers.  Sometimes I like to talk about my coworkers with other people who are not acquainted with my coworkers.  I often like to protect the privacy of my coworkers (or really anyone) so I do not like to use their respective names when talking about my coworkers with people who are not acquainted with my coworkers.  Thus, I often refer to my coworkers by other “names.”  These “names” often end up being animals.

Animal coworker Non-animal coworker
Badger FD (which are initials for something else)
Burro Herb
Duck (previously known as GG) Huffypants
Fish Index
Fishypants (I drew him as a weird Charlie the Tuna, definitely qualifies as an animal coworker) Pointe
Jelly (as in jellyfish) Pretty
Otter Sue
Pengy (short for penguin)  
Rabbit  
Seal (full name is Sam the Seal Booger, but normally just referred to as seal)  
Spidder (like spider, but dumber)  

Having finally created a list of all the other names I call my coworkers…I’m noticing that a lot of the animals are either marine animals or animals that have a strong association with water.  I never noticed that before.

In case you’re wondering, there are reasons behind all these names.  It’s not like I just declare someone is a turtle or something.  Also, no one currently is named turtle.

Also, the purpose of talking about my coworkers isn’t so much for gossip.  It’s generally because some of my coworkers have a bit part in a story I’m telling relating to work (and there is little in my life upon which work has not encroached) or they did something I found particularly humorous and I want to share my amusement with someone.  The person’s name really isn’t crucial to the story but it’s annoying to constantly refer to people as my coworker and my other coworker and that other other coworker.  Having these names is much better.

 

I make! Radish refrigerator pickles edition

Duck sometimes brings small sandwiches with him to work.  His sandwiches often include radishes.  This made me really crave radishes.  It’s weird.  I really wanted to put radishes in my sandwiches and stuff just because I saw him do it.  So I bought a great deal of radishes (by the bunch, so I sautéed the radish tops with some garlic since it seemed wasteful to throw away all the radish tops).  Now then, I only eat so many sandwiches and I had too many radishes for the amount of sandwiches I would normally eat.  So I decided to pickle the rest of them.

My mother made these really delicious, tangy radish (quick) pickles once.  Unfortunately, I don’t know what she pickled them with.  I mean, I know she used vinegar and sugar, but I didn’t know what kind of vinegar or how much sugar.  So in the end, I just made it up.  I opted for red wine vinegar, since I had that on hand, I was out of white wine vinegar, and I didn’t want the acridness of white vinegar (and balsamic is too dark).

I sliced all my extra radishes about 1/8″ thick and stuffed them in a mason jar.  Then I heated some red wine vinegar and sugar together (about 3:1, and I estimated the amount I would need to cover all the radishes) until the sugar was completed dissolved and the mixture was just starting the boil.  I poured the vinegar mixture over the radishes and let it cool to room temp.  Then I covered and stuffed it in the fridge.

I had pickles with sandwiches, after I ran out of fresh radishes, with hot dogs, because I was craving a hot dog one day, and sometimes just by themselves.  They were a little sweeter than I would have liked so I might go for a 4:1 ratio of vinegar and sugar next time, but otherwise they were quite good.  I think I might try making fermented radish pickles next time instead of make a quick fridge pickle.

WP_20160312_19_13_25_Rich_LI

Yes, the whites of the radishes do turn red as they as they soak in the pickling liquid.