Word Salad, Part Two

James Evans, a fan of my site, sent me this today:

The lunch menu in the cafeteria at work is advertising “Mescaline Salad” today. I think a “mesclun vs. mescaline” entry may be warranted. A quick search of Google indicates that our cafeteria is not the only one making that mistake.

Indeed. 

Here are some examples that pop up:

A recipe: Strawberry - Mango Mescaline Salad 

A salad label 

A photo: Mescaline salad field 

Here's a cartoon on this subject: Mesclun or Mescaline Salad

Mescaline is of course the active ingredient in peyote, a psychedelic alkaloid.

Mesclun is a French word literally meaning “mixture,” used to describe a mixture of various greens. The term is popular on pretentious menus, where it may designate a mixture of any number of different greens. Since it has no precise definition, I prefer the simple English “mixed greens.”

This mix-up isn’t common enough to qualify for my Web site, but I liked it so much I thought it was worth a blog post.