The parsley.

This morning on the drive to work my wife Alene and I were talking, and the subject of pigs and chickens came up. You know, the ham-and-eggs breakfast: the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.

At PARC we used the terms to indicate one's level of comittment to a project. A chicken would do some work but drop it if something else came up, while a pig would make it the focus of all his (or her) work.

Alene came up with yet another level of involvement: parsley. The parsley is just sort of there. It doesn't really contribute anything, but it has to be acknowledged. Sort of like a thesis advisor...