the official font of Donald Trump's campaign literature was called...


aksidenz-grotesk.

Laughed out loud when I heard that.
(Also discovered in the same podcast that "Chock full o'Nuts" coffee contains no nuts.)

For anyone interested I recommend the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast which is not only Chock Full O'Nuts in terms of its presenters but also Chock Full O' Weird and Wonderful facts.

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Now that I think of it I might use this thread to post all the language related stuff from the podcast.

Watch this space.

Not from the podcast but from a recent British newspaper, a report informed me that a brand of peanut butter had to be withdrawn from British supermarkets because the makers had neglected to include the words "may contain nuts" on the jar.

Here's another - from the same episode - about digitising old books. A project to digitise books from earlier centuries has had difficulties because the combination of the fonts, the print quality and limitations of the scanner mean that the words "arms" and "anus" often get confused leading to phrases like "She wound her anus affectionately around her brother's neck."

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Babybel cheese is an eponym - the company was founded by Jules Bel in 1865.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Not from the podcast but from a recent British newspaper, a report informed me that a brand of peanut butter had to be withdrawn from British supermarkets because the makers had neglected to include the words "may contain nuts" on the jar.

That's crazy! Actually, peanuts aren't a nut. They're a legume, like beans. The only way the above makes sense to me, is if it included other "nuts". Here, I have seen some labels that say something about including "tree nuts".

I know allergens are nothing to sneeze at. I remember reading about a man who got a pizza at a pizza place that he and his wife had eaten at before. Only this time, they used egg on the pizza crust. He had a severe egg allergy and died from eating it.

Back to your story, if a person can't figure out that peanut butter has peanuts in it, it's time to call it quits as a species.

You haven't been to Californica lately, have you? They've got some law called Proposition 65 which mandates that all packages and products have a label saying that said package or product may cause cancer. Hell, Californica causes cancer! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ornia_Proposition_65

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:
You haven't been to Californica lately, have you? They've got some law called Proposition 65 which mandates that all packages and products have a label saying that said package or product may cause cancer. Hell, Californica causes cancer! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ornia_Proposition_65

You have a problem there and, believe it or not, it's a language problem. The World Health Organisation classifies things as one of the following.

carcinogenic to humans
probably carcinogenic to humans
possibly carcinogenic to humans and
probably not carcinogenic to humans

None of those things mean what you think they mean. There is no "not carcinogenic to humans" group and of the many hundreds of substances classified only one has been labelled as probably not carcinogenic*.

This is because the categories are evaluating the strength of the evidence rather than the risk. So if there are a hundred studies showing that, for example, there is no evidence of jelly beans being carcinogenic and one study that is inconclusive then that gets lumped along with almost everything else as "possibly carcinogenic".

It's a cliche that you can't prove a negative but in this case that's how the system works. The meanings of those classifications would be better expressed as

carinogenic
there is no proof that it is carcinogenic
there is no proof that it isn't and
it probably isn't.

Even then it doesn't make much sense because going for a walk in the sun and being exposed to nuclear fallout are both in the carcinogenic category because both have been shown as causal factors but the relative risk of the two things isn't even remotely comparable.


So, basically you are right. Under WHO classifications everything is a cancer risk


(*caprolactum since you ask - a substance that yoga pants and shaving brush bristles are made from)

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I am going to start posting facts here in the form of questions. If people like the idea maybe we can start it as a regular game. Language facts only.

Here is my first. No Googling allowed.

The Nigerian navy has battleships named Erinomi, Enyimiri, Dorina and Otobo. Why is this noteworthy?

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I love this thread, Bob. Without the help of Google, I can't figure out those battleship names.

Oh, you are not going to figure them out. It's just a weird language fact about them. Not even the English language.

As no one seems terribly interested I'll post the answer tomorrow and leave it at that.

Sorry, I thought of posting. I have no idea and all I thought is that it sounded like names, maybe gods and goddesses.

Nigeria is one of those countries with lots of languages, though the official language is English. Those four names are, respectively, in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Ijaw and all of them mean Hippopotamus.

I will try another one...

What controversial decision has the Scottish Maritime Museum recently taken, and why?

Remember this is a language based question and this time the language in question IS English.

Since I can't look at the site of the museum to see what language they use there, I am going to guess that they either put up information in Gaelic if it is already in English or they put up information in English if it is in Gaelic. I am going to assume they put up information in Gaelic, though.

quote:

As no one seems terribly interested I'll post the answer tomorrow and leave it at that.

It's not that. We just have to become more active again. As we've learned, inactivity begets inactivity.

Ideas will be cheerfully accepted.

Well the answer to the Maritime museum question is this.

They have rewritten all their signage so that, throughout the museum, ships are now referred to as "it" rather than "she" as a small number of people complained that they were sexist and kept vandalising the original signs.

I think that's interesting, Bob. Please, do more!

OK.

In what very significant way did early crosswords published in the Daily Telegraph differ from the modern ones?

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Not language related but too good to not share.

We have all read that Donald Trump thinks wind power is bad partly because he says "the noise causes cancer" but also because, as he puts it, they are "bird cemetaries" where you can wade through the dead birds they killed. Well here's an article that might make him want to ban windows.

Stop blaming cats.

And here's a good one that I discovered all by myself without the No Such Thing podcast.

Why does this resort's name amuse me so much?

I see colors when I think about it. It is a strange name, though.

Perhaps my question could be clearer. It amuses me for a specific reason. Can you suggest what that is? Remember I am posting things to do with language. I'll bet five cents that shu can spot it in seconds.

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I'll give the answer to this one though...

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
OK.

In what very significant way did early crosswords published in the Daily Telegraph differ from the modern ones?

The answers did not all have to be real words. For example, the answer to the clue "A muddled life" was "ILFE" and the answer to the clue "This has its tail dislocated" was "STHI".

(https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2011/09/)

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
And here's a good one that I discovered all by myself without the No Such Thing podcast.

Why does this resort's name amuse me so much?

Perhaps because of the etymology. Avocado = testicle and orchid = bollocks.

Yep, that's it... they named their hotel The Testicle and Testicle. (sort of) And it's such an unusual name you have to ask yourself if the person who thought of it knew that and did it deliberately.

Here are a couple of questions that could be characterised as “re-branding” in the same way that Prairie Oysters are bull testicles.

In Australia and New Zealand locust sold as food were given a new, and more appealing, name. What was it?

When Cicadas fill the trees they pee quite vigourously that people walking beneath can get splashed. This isn’t called cicada pee, it’s called cicada rain but it also has less obvious and more pleasant name. What is it?

Do I have to guess or can I look it up?

J have seen birds do this. Did you know that deer sometimes do it, too? They think the deer sees his own reflection, thinks it's another deer and comes charging. Where my late Dad use to live it happened to someone who lived on the first floor. Tore up the apartment before it finally got back outside.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Not language related but too good to not share.

We have all read that Donald Trump thinks wind power is bad partly because he says "the noise causes cancer" but also because, as he puts it, they are "bird cemetaries" where you can wade through the dead birds they killed. Well here's an article that might make him want to ban windows.

Stop blaming cats.

quote:

Originally posted by sattva:
Do I have to guess or can I look it up?

Try to guess

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Here are a couple of questions that could be characterised as “re-branding” in the same way that Prairie Oysters are bull testicles.

In Australia and New Zealand locust sold as food were given a new, and more appealing, name. What was it? Nectar of the Gods

When Cicadas fill the trees they pee quite vigourously that people walking beneath can get splashed. This isn’t called cicada pee, it’s called cicada rain but it also has less obvious and more pleasant name. What is it?

Golden Rain

A fair try but still a little more on the nose than the real answer. Any idea on the locust？

I had guessed Nectar of the Gods, but that obviously wasn't right. I could guess a hundred times and not come up with it. Moondrops or Sundrops or something ridiculous are my next guesses.

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As it's just you and me playing I'll give you the answers

Locusts were rebranded as Sky Prawns

and

Cicada Pee is also called Honeydew.

Great examples of euphemisms, Bob. On another note, I think you and I have stumbled into the twilight zone where everyone else is just in pause mode.

Not English this time, Welsh.

In Welsh "pysgodyn wibli wobli" is a slang term for which creature?

(You might be able to work this one out.)

I'll leave that one hanging there for a while in case sattva (or anyone else) would like to have a go and post this question...

What do the following have in common...

The photographer Lilian Virginia Mountweazel, the Ohio town of Goblu, Columbo's first name and the words esquivalience, zzxjoanw and jungftak.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Not English this time, Welsh.

In Welsh "pysgodyn wibli wobli" is a slang term for which creature?

(You might be able to work this one out.)

It is definitely a living, breathing, creature, Bob?

It is.

My first thoughts had nothing to do with creatures. One was of the toys popular when my son was little, --- Weebles, "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" is how the commercial went. The second was an episode of Are You Being Served? titled "A Change is Good as a Rest". In that episode which was both funny and touching, Ladies and Gents department staff were sent to work in the toy department. Of course, Mr. Humphries played with one of the Wibbly Wobblies.

I think of penguins when I hear the term you used. I am assuming, though, that you meant a local animal. So, I will go with a goat.

And the answer is...


jellyfish.

Pysgodyn is apparently "fish" and that put me in mind of pisces. I don't know if they are actually etymologically connected or not.

Now what about that seemingly random selection of people, places and words. What's the connection?

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Not a question but I just heard a great new German word (new to me anyway) - Sitzpinkler - a man who pees sitting down. Clearly a word that we need to have.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
ships are now referred to as "it" rather than "she" as a small number of people complained that they were sexist and kept vandalising the original signs.

PC strikes again!

PC: Privvy Correctness? And what about women who stand?

Anyone intending to take a guess at what all those things have in common? If not I'll post an answer on Friday.

I give!

They are all copyright traps. None of them exist. It is common practice in reference books to include wholly fictitious entries so that if a subsequent book on a similar topic also includes the reference they know that the work has just been copied from them

The 1975 New Columbia Encyclopedia included an entry for Lilian Mountweazel, a completely made up person who allegedly came from Bangs, Ohio and was supposedly killed in an explosion while on a photoshoot which perhaps should have given the game away. The name "Mountweazel" is sometimes used nowadays as a general term meaning a fictitious copyright trap entry.

The 1978 state map of Michigan included the fake towns of Beatosu and Goblu which a little examination reveals as Beat OSU and Go Blu, references to, so I understand, some college football teams.

Columbo's first name appeared as a question in a trivia question in The Trivia Encyclopedia where the answer given was "Philip" though in fact no first name was ever revealed in the series. It resulted in a law suit when the same question and answer appeared in Trivial Pursuit.

Dictionaries are particularly prone to this. The New Oxford American Dictionary defined esquivalience as "wilful avoidence of one's official duties". The 1903 Music Lover's Encyclopedia defined zzxjoanw as a type of Maori drum (even though the language doesn't have J,X or Z). The 1943 Websters included a very odd mountweazel in the word jungftak which was described as a bird where the male had only a right wing and the female only a left wing so that they could only fly by holding on to each other.

Such copyright traps are also common in maps and town plans which often include non existent streets which must be exceptionally annoying for dedicated hikers. I have no idea if The Good Beer Guide includes made up pubs but I can imagine that if it does it would be terrible for my old friend Andrew who would think nothing of making a four or five hour trip on busses and trains to drink half a pint of a beer that he had never had before so that he could tick it off on his list.

I understand why they do it, I suppose, but it seems disingenuous. If I am looking up a word in a dictionary and find "esquivalience," for example, I expect it to really be a word. I shouldn't have to validate every word I don't know to be sure it's not one of their little tricks.

What I thought in doing this is that I have never heard of any of these words, names, or places. With Ohio, I have been through there quite a few times and didn't remember ever seeing any reference to the place. I use to love looking at maps, too. I couldn't think of ever hearing Columbo's first name, though I knew it was played by Peter Falk. I thought of asking my sister because she liked the show a great deal.

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