Salad Days…

Now I have heard about dog days and apprehend their arrival every year, especially here where I have no air conditioning. Dog days are when the temperature goes up a degree or two overnight instead of down and make for miserable sleep to say the least.

But salad days? I would presume that those are the days when I eat salad – that happens often in the summer - as the thought of anything hot or heavy can be repugnant. I love salads so have many “salad days”.

Today, however from one of my favorite sources I learned that there is another reason to like this term: it is a noun meaning
1. A period of youthful innocence and inexperience.
2. A period of great success: heyday.

“The earliest documented use of the term is from Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” (1616). Cleopatra, now in love with Antony, explains her previous admiration for Julius Caesar with these words:
“My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood,
To say as I said then.”

(source: A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg)

I love the fact that although the first definition may have passed (yes I am no longer twenty, nor thirty…) there is possibly still room for the second.

So bring on my salad days, both physically and metaphorically!

The mozzarella "salad" creation from Café des Marronniers