October 7, 1918 – Full diary entry:

“Nothing to do but eat and rest. Inspection today by the Colonel. Got bawled out.

Eat red horse + cabbage nearly every meal. Hot cakes tonight.”

After having to search for a surprising amount of time, I found this reference on Pinterest and will have to go with it until somebody corrects me or finds a more authoritative source. It makes sense, at least:

During WWI, a whole vocabulary sprung up around food. Bread was “punk,” stew was “slum,” corn-beef was “red horse,” and a mess sergeant was referred to as a “belly-robber.”

Robert’s memory of the failed inspection, of course, is what inspired me to include the story of the Regular Army inspector a few days ago.

Where was Robert today? See the timeline.