There I am a couple days before Christmas: I am beside the legendary Ta Keone sign itself, the one in front of my mom's local sushi joint.




For years, my mom thought this sign, which is to the right of the front door, was the actual name of the restaurant. She read the sign as Tah Kay Oh Nay.




Never mind the bright blue sign above the restaurant. Or, come to think of it, the word "Please" just beneath it.

I wasn't there on that special day when my mom said Tah Kay Oh Nay out loud--as in "let's go to Ta Keone and get some tempura"--but Bill, her fiance, was. According to legend, Bill explained to my mom that the sign was for take out menus, and in fact should be read as "Take One."

"Well," my mom said, taking a drag on one of her Vantage Ultra Light 100s, "the penmanship is so bad." I think it was also my mom, like myself, overpronounces non-English words, partially out of insecurity for getting a word wrong, partially out of respect for other cultures, trying to get it right, to avoid embarassment. And, in so doing, my mom began saying Tah Kay Oh Nay.


That's my mom. I'm related to her.

I posted about this before in an old blog, and several people since then have taken to using TaKeone in their emails and letters. And all of them has used them as salutations or sign-offs. My best guess is that TaKeone sounds like "ta ta" or "ta ta for now."


TaKeone,
Dan

Labels: Riffs TaKeone