This Is About Smut

Reader Contribution by Cam Mather

Well it had to happen. To all my readers, especially people who know me, it was sort of inevitable that eventually one of my blogs would be full of smut. In our relentless quest to drive traffic to the website it was only a matter of time before I resorted to the smut card.

I learned a new word recently — pejorative.  Pejoratives are words or grammatical forms, which denote a negative effect or which bring about the lowering in the meaning of word. In other words, you can use a word and sometimes it can have a positive meaning, but you can also use it in a negative or pejorative way. Sting was just interviewed on PBS and he said the term “aging rock star” doesn’t have to be pejorative (or negative). Although the thought of Mick Jagger parading on stage at the age of 67 is kind of bizarre, so I guess I’d use “aging rock star” in the pejorative sense. Come on, Mick, retire to the castle.

Anyway, back to smut. A Google search of “smut” turns up over 15 million results. Wikipedia provides 6 meanings of the word “smut” including former NASCAR driver Jimmy Means whose nickname is “Smut”.

Today I am discussing “smut” as I identified it in my book “The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook.” Smut is a fungus. A smut is a multicellular fungus that affects grasses, including cereal crops like corn. They attack the plant’s reproductive system and form a crazy looking “gall.” Galls looks like cancerous tumors growing on the corn. I remember the first time I saw one. I freaked out. They look like something out of David Cronenberg movie.

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