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Your radio show is delightful... and I never would have known about it if you hadn't posted a link to my blog post about collective nouns for plants (A Wreck of Hesperus).
On your show, it wasn't clear if these collective nouns were real or made-up. They are entirely, as PG Wodehouse might have described them, "phonus-balonus." My wife and I started making them up on a road trip and -- as is obvious from the comments here -- other like-minded people also find the process irresistibly addictive.
The blog post is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce, so to speak. We have hundreds more in the book we're writing (that's why the original blog post was copyrighted).
Juan Twotrees said:
Regarding spoonerisms, you have to hear the last track on (I believe) every release by the Capitol Steps, the politics-n-pop culture-skewering song parodists from Washington, DC. For example, the 2008 CD, Obama Mia!, which includes such hits as "Ebony and Ovaries" and "Little Plumber Boy," ends with the extended spoonerism monologue "Lirty Dies:2008 - the Load to the Erection." (Yes, the double entendres do figure into the humor quite heavily.) More info at http://www.capsteps.com
I want to second Juan's endorsement of CapSteps. They mostly do songs, but most of their albums have a lengthy story told almost entirely with Spoonerisms that are just hilarious. My favorite line was from one during the Lewinsky scandal that went something like this: Lonica Mewinsky is going to bite a wrook, and that rook is going to make her bich. What with be the jitle on the tacket? It's from Darles Chickens: A Sale of Two Tities. 🙂
Faux Frenchie said:
Juan Twotrees said:
Regarding spoonerisms, you have to hear the last track on (I believe) every release by the Capitol Steps, the politics-n-pop culture-skewering song parodists from Washington, DC. For example, the 2008 CD, Obama Mia!, which includes such hits as "Ebony and Ovaries" and "Little Plumber Boy," ends with the extended spoonerism monologue "Lirty Dies:2008 - the Load to the Erection." (Yes, the double entendres do figure into the humor quite heavily.) More info at http://www.capsteps.com
I want to second Juan's endorsement of CapSteps. They mostly do songs, but most of their albums have a lengthy story told almost entirely with Spoonerisms that are just hilarious. My favorite line was from one during the Lewinsky scandal that went something like this: Lonica Mewinsky is going to bite a wrook, and that rook is going to make her bich. What with be the jitle on the tacket? It's from Darles Chickens: A Sale of Two Tities.
I've got to repeat the recommendation for the Capital Steps. If you get a chance, listen to this story (text and audio) about Haris Pilton. Don't listen while driving. It could result in a crad bash.
Apropos of pannas, scrapple, and other such peasant food designed to use everything in the pig including the oink ...
I lived in Cincinnati for a time, and there was a food substance called Goetta. It was so common it was available in the chain grocery stores there, and all the little meat specialty shops had their version. The spelling is via the common deconstruction of the original German word, which was without the 'e' and with the 'o' umlauted.
The usual grain used with the meat is steelcut oats. The meat stock is typically pork, with up to 50% beef seen occasionally. And dressed up with some very nice spices.
A nice little FAQ about goetta:
Ron Draney said:
Ahem. Change of subject to another part of the episode.
I can understand well why a musician would rankle at someone using "crescendo" to mean "maximum volume or intensity" instead of "increasing volume or intensity". It's much the way I feel when someone speaks of working to reach "the very plateau" in some accomplishment.
Abuses of technical terms that bother me as a mathematician:
- parameters to mean "boundaries"
- steep learning curve in reference to a slow process
- quantum leap to describe an enormous change
I agree, largely, with Ron's complaint ... but can't agree about "learning curve." I've always taken "steep learning curve" to be a graph of understanding/effort rather than understanding/time.
Of course, ALL language (not to mention every other cultural artifact) is "made up." However the animal collective names (terms of venery) have historical usage -- they were all terms of the hunt, going back to the Middle Ages, and possibly earlier.
Our list of plant groups (what we're calling "terms of vegery") have neither historical precedent nor practical usage; they were invented -- by my wife and me, and by all the people who have have since added to the list -- out of sheer whimsey, with no purpose other than amusement.
ggurman said:
It was mentioned that the plant collective names were "made up" but weren't the animal collective names made up too?
Sanscravat said:
Of course, ALL language (not to mention every other cultural artifact) is "made up." However the animal collective names (terms of venery) have historical usage — they were all terms of the hunt, going back to the Middle Ages, and possibly earlier.
Okay, fair enough. I didn't realize there was an actual historical usage for the animal words. Thanks for the correction.
Glenn said
Regarding whenever:... it is not accurate to say that whenever expresses a notion of repetition... but, rather, uncertainty of timing.
Oftentimes it is quite unambiguous from the context:
Whenever it will snow, I will do a barefoot dance on the lawn. (uncertainty of timing)
Whenever it snowed, I would do a barefoot dance on the lawn. (repetition by habit)
Whenever that law was passed, it was a dark day for the nation. (uncertainty of timing)
Whenever a bad law was passed, it was a dark day for the nation. (repetition with many bad laws)
Whenever they hire a new person to the group, I'm going to take some needed vacation. (uncertainty of timing)
Whenever they hired a new person to the group, I would feel a little more justified to take vacation. (repetition)
Robert said
...
Whenever it snowed, I would do a barefoot dance on the lawn. (repetition by habit)
...
Whenever a bad law was passed, it was a dark day for the nation. (repetition with many bad laws)
...
Whenever they hired a new person to the group, I would feel a little more justified to take vacation. (repetition)
Thanks. These are great examples for my category of "a repeated, but unpredictable event."
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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