Clabber girl

In the category of "Things I Should Have Known" lies my topic today. The 1st thing I should have known (and one day long ago I was probably told about this) is that baking powder is not a unique ingredient and you can make your own concoction:

• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Combine ingredients and store tightly covered. For double-acting baking powder, use 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar for each teaspoon needed.

Fine. But the other day I was at the grocery store with John when I picked up a can of Clabber Girl Baking Powder, and he asked "What's a clabber girl?" This is why it's fun to have John along when I go to the grocery store. Makes me think, which I ordinarily don't do when I'm there. In fact I did not know what a clabber girl is, or even what "clabber" means. To make matters more confusing, half the time I write "clabber" here, I get little red dots under it (which makes me feel less ignorant) and the other half I don't (odd). Ben had a buddy visiting, a friend feeling tentative about his upcoming move to the heartland state of Indiana, from trendy Portland, OR. The buddy informed me that "clabber" meant a "mixing utensil" or maybe just "to mix." This made sense, but when I looked it up, the dictionary said it simply meant "curdled milk." (Yuck.)

So I went to the Clabber Girl website (everybody has a website, right?) and learned that the company headquarters is in Terre Haute, Indiana (!), and that they have a museum pictured at the left, and that they are the sponsoring group behind the Indy 500. WHAT? Is this a cover-up of sorts? Am I the first to realize that it should rightfully be named the "Clabber Girl 500"? If it were called that, what would happen? Chrystal, soon to be my adored daughter-in-law, suggested that they would be better off calling it the "Arm and Hammer 500."

Or maybe "Clobber Girl 500"? Would that work?

Artist: Neil Camera