Archive for 2: Uppercase 1
Samuel Goldstein provides another folkloric example of a machine-translated proverb: English: Out of sight, out of mind. English—>Russian—>English: Invisible lunatic. I'd seen it before (in the same place as the vodka bit—perhaps a Smullyan book?) but had forgotten it. (Last updated: 17 March 1998) Back to column Z
"I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch— I said it in German and Greek: But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much) That English is what you speak!" —The Baker, Fit the Fourth, The Hunting of the Snark My column is too often English-centric. There's a sad reason for that: although I […]
Matt Brocchini searched through two years' worth of his saved email to find all the lines that began with the word "because"; then he arranged those lines in alphabetical order. (Or at least his computer's idea of alphabetical order.) The resulting found art should provide an explanation for any occasion. I have taken the liberty […]
There are letters on my telephone dial. This fact does not surprise you. "Of course there are letters on your telephone dial," you say. "How else could you dial 1-800-CORRECT? How else could you dial 1-900-HOT-SEX? How else could you say 'My phone number spells out PIGEONZ'?" (Ever notice how in movies they use "555-" […]
There's an old riddle which goes: Q: What word is always pronounced wrong? A: The word "wrong." I recently encountered another version of that riddle in a book: Q: What word is never pronounced right? A: "Wrong." Whoever wrote up this latter item may have not understood the original joke (the second version borders on […]
Q: What has four wheels and flies? A: A garbage truck. ...No, wait. I got the punch line right but the wrong question. Let's back up and try that again. Q: Johnny, name a collective noun. A: A garbage truck! I read that joke in I don't know how many riddle books as a kid, […]
I recently encountered the term "TWAIN," referring to scanner-related software. I vaguely wondered what it stood for, but assumed it was just some boring computer acronym. So I was delighted when Don Monson coincidentally dropped me a note a couple weeks later to tell me what "TWAIN" really stands for: Technology Without An Interesting Name. […]
"Many thanks to old Cadmus, who made us his debtors, by inventing one day the capital letters." —from an old rhyme, according to Oscar Ogg When I decided to write about acronyms, it occurred to me to wonder where capital letters came from—or more precisely, where and when the idea was formed of having two […]
(Notes: my information here is based largely on research I did in 1990; much of it comes from linguistics papers from the '60s and '70s. My information may therefore be somewhat outdated, but it's the most recent information I have available. On an unrelated note, you'll need a browser that can display tables to get […]
Jim had sent me some more of his Swifties that I forgot to include in the column: "I've changed my mind; I'm not on either team," Tom decided. "I got the lead in a Shakespeare play," Tom said lyrically. "You'll be staying with us?" Tom guessed. "Dorothy's aunt sure has put on weight," Tom said […]