Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I first heard of the Thundering Herd in November 1970, when Southern Airlines flight 932 wiped out the football team, the coaching staff, and two dozen boosters.  They were returning from a 17-14 loss against the East Carolina Pirates, and they took it hard when they landed.  The fuselage was reduced to powder, and they never were able to identify six passengers.  I guess the lesson is not to get on a plane carrying a thundering herd.

Then I learned the Wake Forest team was the Demon Deacons.  Deacon is an interesting word. 

To deacon fruit or vegetables, you put the less appealing stuff at the bottom and top the peck with beautiful produce.  Deacon calves are dairy bulls sold at auction at 2-3 days old, to be raised as vealers.  If the price of veal is low, it's not worth hauling the calves to the auction barn, so the farmer deacons the calf immediately upon birth by whopping it on the head.  When I was in high school, I had several retailers tell me that deacons always wanted to buy things for needy families, and they wouldn't extend credit.  Worst credit risks ever, one said.  They never pay up; I'll put my donation in the plate, but sell to them for cash.  So I guess deacons have a reputation worse than used car salesmen.

The team at Franklin & Marshall is officially the F&M Diplomats, but the cheerleaders cry "Go, Dips!" and the Lancaster Intelligencer refers to them as the Dips in headlines and news stories.  I imagine many high school kids today might not know what a "dip" is, but older adults surely remember when it was slang other than "pickpocket".  Fans of B.C. might think of a road sign that says "Dip in Road"

I'd never heard of a team called the Geoducks before the October 5 "Fighting Artichokes" show, but Tom Parker-Bowles, the food-critic son of Camilla and stepson of Prince Charles, wrote a wonderful book entitled The Year Of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure In Search Of Culinary Extremes in 2007.  It's available used for 1c on Amazon.

Parker-Bowles ate a variety of strange food around the world, including eels in England, Fugu in Japan, and dog soup (tastes like wet dog smells) in China.  Geoduck was on his list because it looks like a penis.  I think I'd pass on any of the foods on his list, but it was easily the best book I read that year.

And I think that the guy in a sleeping bag probably looked like he was wearing a sleeping bag to keep the school's sponsors from getting upset.