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Feedback|| Thanks for the miracle of corn (Los Angeles Times
Syndicate) -- In the first book of the Old Testament, (Genesis
42:1) we read: "Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt." That does
not mean the pyramid builders munched corn-on-the-cob to fortify
their labors. The sweet corn we know and love is strictly a New
World food. Confusion stems from the fact that when the Bible
was translated into English during the reign of King James I,
the word "corn" was a generic term meaning the seeds of all
cereal grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats) much as "berry" means
any small succulent fruit. On November 4, 1492, when Columbus
landed on a Caribbean island, his diary records that the Taino
natives grew a grain called mahiz which was "well tasted baked,
dried and made into flour." In English, the word became "maize,"
but early settlers stubbornly continued to call the grain
"Indian corn." They also refused to eat it, a fact that more
than once nearly destroyed the