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On the subject of old insults, how about this one from W.S. Gilbert? He once declared that “[n]o one can have a higher opinion of him than I have-and I think he is a dirty little beast.â€
Prokdoc said:
During the discussion of old insults I couldn't help but be reminded of Monty Python's Holy Grail. feature=fvw
In this episode Martha and Grant talked about camelCase and StuDlyCapS. As a pharmacist another capitalization technique immediately came to my mind. Tall man lettering was developed by Food and Drug Administration and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices to emphasize the difference between look-alike drug names with the ultimate goal of reducing medication errors in hospitals and pharmacies. The use of technology to reduce errors is a passion of mine. Drug manufacturers seem to have embraced this technique; I see it on manufacturer stock bottle often. I see VERY FEW doctors' orders that use this technique. I work for a major retail chain and even our pharmacy software and prescription labels lag behind in using this simple and proven-effective technique. Compare both ways below. Which way would you want your prescription written?
guanfacine – guaifenacin
guanFACINE – guaiFENesin
lamivudine – lamotrigine
lamiVUDine – lamoTRIgine
Several examples can be viewed here: http://www.ismp.org/Tools/tallmanletters.pdf
Print out that PDF and take it to your Doctor/Pharmacist and ask if their software incorporates this safety measure. PUT THE PRESSURE ON.
This is reminiscent of the story about GE's initial venture into China, where they had someone translate their company slogan: "GE. We bring good things to life." However, the Chinese translation came out: "GE. We bring your ancestors back from the dead."
> Beware of false friends, those words that don't translate the way you'd expect. For example, the word "gift" in German means "poison," and > the Spanish word "tuna" means "the fruit of the prickly pear cactus." These tricky lookalikes are also called faux amis. As per your request for more false friends, you mentioned 'soy'. My Spanish is fine, but this one did catch me one time. I was driving near Mexico City and stopped at a restaurant called '100% Natural.' It's a mostly veggie place which suited my vegetarian gf. I read the menu, and found they had an item called 'Yo Soy 100% Hamburguesa.' So I ordered it, expecting to get a soy burger. But no — it was a full meat burger, and a true hamburger, just as the name said. What I should have looked for instead was a 'hamburguesa de soya'… And don't forget about 'embarazada' — which does not mean 'embarrassed,' but rather, pregnant.
This is reminiscent of the story about GE's initial venture into China, where they had someone translate their company slogan: "GE. We bring good things to life." However, the Chinese translation came out: "GE. We bring your ancestors back from the dead."
You don't have to cross language barriers for a slogan to become embarrassing. In the wake of Toyota's recent problems with "sudden acceleration" and failing brakes, they started taking out full-page newspaper ads outlining the steps they were taking to correct the situation. The tag line for each ad? "Toyota: moving forward".
Grant Barrett said:
The hosts and a listener in Grand Rapids, Michigan, trade some 17th-century insults. For more, check out these references: Gargantua and George Albert Nicholson's English Words With Native Roots And With Greek, Latin, Or Romance Suffixes.
Martha and Grant, I LOVE your show. I've been listening via podcast for about six months.
Thanks for this episode. I fully enjoyed it. However it has set me on a quest of sorts. I am an aspiring novelist, like so many, and am looking for a list of curses, profanity, and generally offensive terms for my characters to use. I am not writing in the current time and need more witty and archaic responses for them to use. Preferably I would love a list of such things from the present as far back in history as we could go. As I have searched online all I can find is a wealth of comments for the "F-word" and other common four-letter words of our day.
Thanks to anyone who can help with my search.
Grant Barrett said:
Grant shares some slang he's found while exploring the game of Skee-Ball, including to hit the hundo.
And in an interesting twist, I was playing Skee-Ball on my iPod touch while riding the bus home when this segment came on! I'm much more like to find the forty than hit the hundo, though.
capitalization - The original version of this story comes from Readers Digest. (This is the best I can remember of it.)
The man bought got new drawing software for his office computer, and filed the normal expense report.
The next day as he was walking past the secretary's desk, she, somewhat embarrassed, told him the company couldn't pay for "things like that" and pointed to the monitor screen. The entry said, "ViagraFix".
Now he was embarrassed, and quickly explained that what he had purchased was "ViaGrafix".
Grant mentioned "thrift" still being used in finance. It's also still used in estate planning. If someone is creating a trust and he is worried that the beneficiary will spend the money unwisely, he can include in the trust language what is known as a spendthrift clause. This clause ensures that the beneficiary won't receive the money until a certain age, when presumably the beneficiary is more financially responsible.
The discussion of keeping things "at bay" NOT having to do with bay leaves, brought up a memory from childhood. Southern Oregon has a lot of myrtle trees, which have leaves similar in odor and flavor to bay, and are sometimes used in cooking to substitute for bay leaves. But we also used the myrtle leaves to keep fleas at bay. Before the advent of Advantage and similar products, we would place a few myrtle leaves between the sheets of our bed. Sure enough, the fleas would flee and were successfully kept at bay, er, at myrtle.
I think "at bay" connotes not so much to keep at a safe distance, but rather to keep hemmed in or contained.
The OED has for bay n4:
II. Most commonly, and often figuratively, in hunting phrases relating to the position of a hunted animal when, unable to flee farther, it turns, faces the hounds, and defends itself at close quarters.
3. Of the position of the hunted animal: to stand, be (abide obs.) at bay, turn to bay; and of the relative action of the hounds: to hold or have at bay, bring or drive to bay, make a bay at (obs.)
c1314 Guy Warw. 245 He stod at a bay, And werd him while that he may. c1350 Will. Palerne 35 He gan to berke on at barn and to baie it hold.
Its use here predates the reference related to bay leaves from bay n1:
1530 PALSGR. 914/3 The bay tre, laurier.
My late fox-hunting grandfather would probably agree.
Emmett
A North Carolina woman says when she told her friend she had a TL for her, the friend had no idea what she was talking about. She learns that the term is a shortened form of a secondhand compliment also known as a trade-last or last-go-trade.
I'm listening to an old episode of the George Burns & Gracie Allen Show, George is on Trial (09-02-1940). In the episode the announcer compliments George and compares him to Spam (the show's sponsor). George says, "Thanks, Bud, that's a nice TL for me but..."
Caught my attention after hearing an explanation of TL on your show. This expression is an old one.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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