spud

Cedric Porter, a potato market expert, said the rise in spud prices had been "dramatic".

Cantwell is right to defend the spud against this line of attack.

Potatoes are not native to Ireland, but matters of geography, politics, economics and agriculture all played an important part in establishing the humble spud as a standby in the diets of much of Ireland's working population by the middle of the 19th century.

But the case, like so many others, fell by the flesh of the spud.

It all began when boyhood friends and USC graduates Richard Knerr and Arthur “Spud” Melin began making wooden slingshots in Knerr’s parents’ South Pasadena garage, naming the company after the sound the projectile made when it hit its target, according to the company’s online “Fun Facts about Wham-O.”