Saga is also a Danish cheese, being an intriguing cross between a blue cheese and a brie. It is rarely served anytime than with crackers before or after a meal. Its blue characteristics are gentle, and its brie rind is soft and velvety. A wonderful innovative cheese that is capable of pleasing most people.

research source: cheese.com and my supermarket's dairy department

sacred = S = sagan

saga n.

[WPI] A cuspy but bogus raving story about N random broken people.

Here is a classic example of the saga form, as told by Guy L. Steele:

Jon L. White (login name JONL) and I (GLS) were office mates at MIT for many years. One April, we both flew from Boston to California for a week on research business, to consult face-to-face with some people at Stanford, particularly our mutual friend Richard P. Gabriel (RPG; see gabriel).

RPG picked us up at the San Francisco airport and drove us back to Palo Alto (going logical south on route 101, parallel to El Camino Bignum). Palo Alto is adjacent to Stanford University and about 40 miles south of San Francisco. We ate at The Good Earth, a `health food' restaurant, very popular, the sort whose milkshakes all contain honey and protein powder. JONL ordered such a shake -- the waitress claimed the flavor of the day was "lalaberry". I still have no idea what that might be, but it became a running joke. It was the color of raspberry, and JONL said it tasted rather bitter. I ate a better tostada there than I have ever had in a Mexican restaurant.

After this we went to the local Uncle Gaylord's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor. They make ice cream fresh daily, in a variety of intriguing flavors. It's a chain, and they have a slogan: "If you don't live near an Uncle Gaylord's -- MOVE!" Also, Uncle Gaylord (a real person) wages a constant battle to force big-name ice cream makers to print their ingredients on the package (like air and plastic and other non-natural garbage). JONL and I had first discovered Uncle Gaylord's the previous August, when we had flown to a computer-science conference in Berkeley, California, the first time either of us had been on the West Coast. When not in the conference sessions, we had spent our time wandering the length of Telegraph Avenue, which (like Harvard Square in Cambridge) was lined with picturesque street vendors and interesting little shops. On that street we discovered Uncle Gaylord's Berkeley store. The ice cream there was very good. During that August visit JONL went absolutely bananas (so to speak) over one particular flavor, ginger honey.

Therefore, after eating at The Good Earth -- indeed, after every lunch and dinner and before bed during our April visit -- a trip to Uncle Gaylord's (the one in Palo Alto) was mandatory. We had arrived on a Wednesday, and by Thursday evening we had been there at least four times. Each time, JONL would get ginger honey ice cream, and proclaim to all bystanders that "Ginger was the spice that drove the Europeans mad! That's why they sought a route to the East! They used it to preserve their otherwise off-taste meat." After the third or fourth repetition RPG and I were getting a little tired of this spiel, and began to paraphrase him: "Wow! Ginger! The spice that makes rotten meat taste good!" "Say! Why don't we find some dog that's been run over and sat in the sun for a week and put some ginger on it for dinner?!" "Right! With a lalaberry shake!" And so on. This failed to faze JONL; he took it in good humor, as long as we kept returning to Uncle Gaylord's. He loves ginger honey ice cream.

Now RPG and his then-wife KBT (Kathy Tracy) were putting us up (putting up with us?) in their home for our visit, so to thank them JONL and I took them out to a nice French restaurant of their choosing. I unadventurously chose the filet mignon, and KBT had je ne sais quoi du jour, but RPG and JONL had lapin (rabbit). (Waitress: "Oui, we have fresh rabbit, fresh today." RPG: "Well, JONL, I guess we won't need any ginger!")

We finished the meal late, about 11 P.M., which is 2 A.M Boston time, so JONL and I were rather droopy. But it wasn't yet midnight. Off to Uncle Gaylord's!

Now the French restaurant was in Redwood City, north of Palo Alto. In leaving Redwood City, we somehow got onto route 101 going north instead of south. JONL and I wouldn't have known the difference had RPG not mentioned it. We still knew very little of the local geography. I did figure out, however, that we were headed in the direction of Berkeley, and half-jokingly suggested that we continue north and go to Uncle Gaylord's in Berkeley.

RPG said "Fine!" and we drove on for a while and talked. I was drowsy, and JONL actually dropped off to sleep for 5 minutes. When he awoke, RPG said, "Gee, JONL, you must have slept all the way over the bridge!", referring to the one spanning San Francisco Bay. Just then we came to a sign that said "University Avenue". I mumbled something about working our way over to Telegraph Avenue; RPG said "Right!" and maneuvered some more. Eventually we pulled up in front of an Uncle Gaylord's.

Now, I hadn't really been paying attention because I was so sleepy, and I didn't really understand what was happening until RPG let me in on it a few moments later, but I was just alert enough to notice that we had somehow come to the Palo Alto Uncle Gaylord's after all.

JONL noticed the resemblance to the Palo Alto store, but hadn't caught on. (The place is lit with red and yellow lights at night, and looks much different from the way it does in daylight.) He said, "This isn't the Uncle Gaylord's I went to in Berkeley! It looked like a barn! But this place looks just like the one back in Palo Alto!"

RPG deadpanned, "Well, this is the one I always come to when I'm in Berkeley. They've got two in San Francisco, too. Remember, they're a chain."

JONL accepted this bit of wisdom. And he was not totally ignorant -- he knew perfectly well that University Avenue was in Berkeley, not far from Telegraph Avenue. What he didn't know was that there is a completely different University Avenue in Palo Alto.

JONL went up to the counter and asked for ginger honey. The guy at the counter asked whether JONL would like to taste it first, evidently their standard procedure with that flavor, as not too many people like it.

JONL said, "I'm sure I like it. Just give me a cone." The guy behind the counter insisted that JONL try just a taste first. "Some people think it tastes like soap." JONL insisted, "Look, I love ginger. I eat Chinese food. I eat raw ginger roots. I already went through this hassle with the guy back in Palo Alto. I know I like that flavor!"

At the words "back in Palo Alto" the guy behind the counter got a very strange look on his face, but said nothing. KBT caught his eye and winked. Through my stupor I still hadn't quite grasped what was going on, and thought RPG was rolling on the floor laughing and clutching his stomach just because JONL had launched into his spiel ("makes rotten meat a dish for princes") for the forty-third time. At this point, RPG clued me in fully.

RPG, KBT, and I retreated to a table, trying to stifle our chuckles. JONL remained at the counter, talking about ice cream with the guy b.t.c., comparing Uncle Gaylord's to other ice cream shops and generally having a good old time.

At length the g.b.t.c. said, "How's the ginger honey?" JONL said, "Fine! I wonder what exactly is in it?" Now Uncle Gaylord publishes all his recipes and even teaches classes on how to make his ice cream at home. So the g.b.t.c. got out the recipe, and he and JONL pored over it for a while. But the g.b.t.c. could contain his curiosity no longer, and asked again, "You really like that stuff, huh?" JONL said, "Yeah, I've been eating it constantly back in Palo Alto for the past two days. In fact, I think this batch is about as good as the cones I got back in Palo Alto!"

G.b.t.c. looked him straight in the eye and said, "You're in Palo Alto!"

JONL turned slowly around, and saw the three of us collapse in a fit of giggles. He clapped a hand to his forehead and exclaimed, "I've been hacked!"

[My spies on the West Coast inform me that there is a close relative of the raspberry found out there called an `ollalieberry' --ESR]

[Ironic footnote: the meme about ginger vs. rotting meat is an urban legend. It's not borne out by an examination of medieval recipes or period purchase records for spices, and appears full-blown in the works of Samuel Pegge, a gourmand and notorious flake case who originated numerous food myths. The truth seems to be that ginger was used to cover not rot but the extreme salt taste of meat packed in brine, which was the best method available before refrigeration. --ESR]

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

In Norse mythology, Saga is the daughter of Odin. In some accounts, she is considered as just an aspect of Frigg, the wife of Odin.

Saga is the all-knowing goddess, seeing all things that pass and have passed. As such, she is often referred to as the goddess of history, as well as the goddess of poetry. Her name means "omniscience" or "seeress", and this name has come to be applied to those greatest of epic tales. Saga lives at Sinking Beach, in her hall Sokkuabekk, where every day she drinks of golden cups with her father Odin.

嵯峨

Emperor Saga (786-842) was the 52nd emperor of Japan, at least according to the traditional chronology, reigning from 809 to 823.

Saga was the second son of Emperor Kammu and the younger brother of Emperor Heizei. Whereas Heizei was a retiring, amiable man with little interest in politics, Saga was a hedonistic spendthrift who coveted the throne in order to better support his lavish lifestyle. But Saga was not without talent; he was a renowned scholar of the Chinese classics, and accounted as the finest calligrapher of his day. He also was a generous patron of Buddhism, most notably helping Kukai establish the Shingon sect, and is held to have been the first emperor to have tasted tea, when he accepted a cup from a Buddhist monk in 815.

When Emperor Kammu died, Heizei was the heir to the throne, but the greedy Saga contested his claim. Heizei was liked by all, however, and his claim was fairly ironclad so he assumed the throne with little trouble. However, his distaste for politics soon led him to abdicate the throne to Saga after a reign of only three years.

This move greatly angered Heizei's ambitious principal consort, Fujiwara no Kusuko, who had been hoping to have herself formally named Empress, and could not accept the sudden dissolution of her lifelong dream. She therefore took advantage of Saga's falling ill soon after ascending to the throne to foment an armed rebellion in Heizei's name.

Saga thereupon had the title of shogun granted to Sakanoue No Tamuramaro, who put down the rebellion. The disgraced Kusuko committed suicide, and Heizei withdrew from public life completely and became a monk, living in peaceful seclusion for fourteen more years.

Saga's reign as emperor was dogged by financial difficulties, owing to his opulent lifestyle. He often resorted to raising money by selling off tax free shoen estates, but this drastically expanded the lands that were removed from the imperial tax rolls and would eventually lead to severe financial difficulties for his successors.

Another problem Saga faced is that by fathering almost 50 children, he was unable to support them all in the appropriate imperial style dictated by tradition for children of an emperor. This led the clever Saga to devise the stratagem, which would later be copied by several other emperors, of disinheriting his later offspring and officially removing them from the Imperial Family. He bestowed upon these erstwhile sons the family name "Minamoto," and this clan would in later years become one of the most powerful warrior clans in Japan.

Saga eventually tired of the daily rituals required of the emperor, however, and designating a younger brother to be his successor, retired after 14 years on the throne, living out the remainder of his life in a western suburb of Kyoto which is still called "Saga" to this day in his memory. The magnificent palace he built there would in later years become the headquarters of the senior line of the Imperial Family, and eventually, after years of modifications, the Daikakuji Buddhist temple, in which form it survives to the present day.


<< Heizei - Emperors of Japan - Junna >>

Sa"ga (?), n.; pl. Sagas (#). [Icel., akin to E. saw a saying. See Say, and cf. Saw.]

A Scandinavian legend, or heroic or mythic tradition, among the Norsemen and kindred people; a northern European popular historical or religious tale of olden time.

And then the blue-eyed Norseman told A saga of the days of old. Longfellow.

 

© Webster 1913.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.