On "NK"

I bought a little bottle of Angostura bitters at my favorite expired-goods and overstock-produce store down the street the other day. You know, why not, right? The cashier was mystified by this object, and who knows how it got there? I love stuff like that.

But what I love more than that is the kosher-certification logo found at the bottom of the label, from National Kashruth:

(image credit: kosherquest.org)

Which any child raised among cornfields will recognize as the logo of Northrup-King seeds (now a product of the not-at-all-ominously-named Syngenta):

(image credit: www.cornrus.50megs.com)

No idea which one came first, but I like the fact that an internet search shows there is apparently no-one else with a weird fascination for both kosher symbols and seed logos.

As someone who's been writing songs about arcane subjects for nearly thirty years, I should use this moment to point out that I have, of course, written a song about this, from my extra-brittle 2004 album Spirit Duplicator. The "winged ear" is of course the DeKalb logo and the "sprouting infinity" the Pioneer logo. Do I have green promotional jackets with their patches from various Iowan thrift stores and/or grandfather's closets? Of course. Do I get a weird feeling when I associate this weird nostalgia with  the logos of what are by this point horrible corporate megaliths? Of course.