I guess it all falls into the partly cloudy/partly sunny syndrome.. 
My understanding, Jafo, is that those have to do with percentages. If it's going to be more than 50% sunny, then they report is as partly cloudy. If more than 50% cloudy it will be partly sunny.
The idea that they can actually predict which it will be leaves me more than partly nonbelieving.
The real problem with culinary definitions is this. Most of us either don't know the technical names for what we do. Or we ignore them, and use collequial meanings.
Sometimes it doesn't matter on any sort of practical level. I mean, do you really care whether something is a brunois, a dice, or a cube? The technique is the same, and the end result is defined merely by final size. If I tell you to chop something into a small dice, that's close enough.
But this trend also leads to things like: "Saute in a little juice......" If you cook something in juice it is, depending, either steaming, poaching, boiling, or simmering. With a tight cover it could even be braising. But it most emphatically is not sauteing.
If we all persist in following this dumbing down of culinary terms, pretty soon they won't mean anything. And our ability to communicate will also become nonexistent.
The idea that they can actually predict which it will be leaves me more than partly nonbelieving.
The real problem with culinary definitions is this. Most of us either don't know the technical names for what we do. Or we ignore them, and use collequial meanings.
Sometimes it doesn't matter on any sort of practical level. I mean, do you really care whether something is a brunois, a dice, or a cube? The technique is the same, and the end result is defined merely by final size. If I tell you to chop something into a small dice, that's close enough.
But this trend also leads to things like: "Saute in a little juice......" If you cook something in juice it is, depending, either steaming, poaching, boiling, or simmering. With a tight cover it could even be braising. But it most emphatically is not sauteing.
If we all persist in following this dumbing down of culinary terms, pretty soon they won't mean anything. And our ability to communicate will also become nonexistent.