Posts from: October 2006
Hell.com failed to reach the reserve bid in a live auction Friday, which organizers had hoped would bring bids of more than $1 million.
Halloween c.1745, Scottish shortening of Allhallow-even “Eve of All Saints, last night of October” (1556), the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar, where it was Old Year’s Night, a night for witches. Another pagan holiday given a cursory baptism and sent on its way. Hallowmas “All-saints” is first attested 1389.
Boo.com–now that’s a scary story!
Continuing with the unstoppable Canadian theme coursing its way through the Wordlab pipe, and noting the Halloweenery that has engulfed North America on this festive Day Before the Dead, we offer a primer on some of the more esoteric Halloween traditions unique to the land up north:
In Canada people welcome trick-or-treators by placing pumpkins called jack-o’-lanterns in their windows.
Also in Canada it is bad luck for a black cat to cross your path, enter your home, or even enter your ship.
In Canada people give trick-or-treaters sweets to make sure they are not played a trick on.
Children make Jack-o’-lanterns for hallowe’en.
Dressing up as witches, ghosts and beasts for trick-or-treating is done also.
I know, I know, it sounds like Jabberwocky to readers in the States, and seems to make no sense whatsoever. You’ll just have to trust us that in Canada it’s all perfectly logical.
So, a Happy Halloween to you then, eh?
BONUS DISC: As an extra quasi-holiday featurette, I’ve created the following poem, “Canadian Halloween”, from the 69 words quoted above, put into random order using a random number generator:
CANOLA INHALED ANEW
enter witches
they sweets path a In trick-or-treaters trick
as make is people enter make
by your is called Canada
pumpkins people
cat luck and jack-o’-lanterns black
not home your it done in your for hallowe’en
Jack-o’-lanterns Canada
even their for your to Children in played
In Also or on also
placing sure ship up are Dressing welcome
give to a bad beasts
Canada trick-or-treators
ghosts windows cross for
Searching for kid-friendly activities in your neighborhood this Hallow’s Eve?
A land formation in Alberta, Canada, that looks like a native American wearing an iPod was recently discovered in satellite images on Google Earth near Medicine Hat.
The origins of Canadian city names are always interesting, but the origin of the name of Medicine Hat is the stuff of legend.
Approximately 150 km east north-east of Lethbridge, the name of the site of the present city was noted as Medicine Hat by W. Johnson, a member of the North West Mounted Police, in 1882. There are many possible explanations for the name, which is a translation of saamis, Blackfoot Indian for “the head-dress of a medicine man.”
One of them connects the name with a fight between the Cree and Blackfoot tribes, when the Cree medicine man lost his war bonnet in the river. Another associates it with the slaughter of a party of white settlers and the appropriation by the Indian medicine man of a fancy hat worn by one of the victims. Another explanation is that the name was applied originally to a hill east of the town, from its resemblance to the hat of an Indian medicine man. Another possibility describes the rescue of a female Indian from the South Saskatchewan River by an Indian brave, upon whose head a well-known medicine man placed his own hat as a token of admiration of the act of bravery. Still another story suggests that the name was given to the locality because an Indian chief saw in a vision an Indian rising out of the South Saskatchewan River wearing the plumed hat of a medicine man.
Similarly, the name of Saskatoon in the adjacent Province of Saskatchewan was inspired by a Cree word, according to local lore.
The original townsite of Saskatoon, on the east bank of the South Saskatchewan river 235 km northwest of Regina, was part of a 100,000 acre grant in 1882 to the Temperance Colonisation Society of Toronto. The same year, John N. Lake, the leader of the new Temperance Colony, christened the spot Saskatoon. The word comes from the Cree name for “early berries.” Lake described the naming of the settlement as follows:
“On the first Sunday in August (1882), I was lying in my tent about 3 p.m. when a young man came in with a handful of bright red berries and gave them to me. After eating some, I asked where they were found. He said ‘along the river bank.’ I asked if people had a name for them. He said they were saskatoon berries. I at once exclaimed ‘You have found the name of the town — SASKATOON.’ The name was formally accepted by the directors that winter and entered in the minutes.”
It seems only natural that the land formation discovered near Medicine Hat should be named Chief Saskitune.
As It Happens is taking suggestions to name the new landmark rock in Alberta discovered by one Supergranny, while scouring Google Earth with her grandchildren. Welcome to the future of exploration.
Want to name this 250 meter+ iPod-bearing Native American? AIS is submitting the top suggestions in an application to Geographical Names Program of Alberta Community Development. Their Talkback number is 416-205-3331 — or send an e-mail to aih@cbc.ca.
Heart Attack Grill, the home of the double bypass burger, is caught in the middle of a real sizzler of a controversy.
The Center for Nursing Advocacy wants the “naughty nurse” off the menu, and is asking the Arizona theme restaurant to change one small thing about the naughty nurse outfits its waitresses wear — omit the “nurse” part. Assistant Attorney General Daniel R.Christl, representing the Arizona State Board of Nursing, has written this official letter to the owner of the Heart Attack Grill requesting that the restaurant refrain from using the word “nurse” in their advertising unless and until the restaurant hires real nurses.
Menu items at the Heart Attack Grill include the Single Bypass Burger, Double Bypass Burger, Triple Bypass Burger and (are you man enough) the Quadruple Bypass Burger, all available with a side of Flatliner Fries and a cold beer or soda.
From Oxford University, our wordplay of the day.
Via Presurfer
For naming and branding aficionados there’s always something interesting to be found in the links on the blogroll in the left sidebar of this Wordlab blog.
QuizLaw points us to news that a hot dog eatery, Hot Dogma, is changing its name to Franktuary to settle a trademark dispute with Dogma Grill.
Cool Hunting has found a flower vase called the Deflower Vase for some reason.
Snark Hunting discusses the name of Virgin ‘s latest mobile phone, the Lobster, and comments on the brouhaha over the name of Microsoft’s digital media player, Zune.
John Walkenbach on the popular J-Walk Blog points to the Official Google Blog where Google’s trademark lawyers explain the correct usage of the brand name Google as a verb.
Evan Williams, one of the co-founders of Pyra Labs, which made Blogger and is now part of Google, has just started a new company and the name is Obvious.
Ev and his aptly-named startup collaborator, Biz Stone, are obviously on to something with this new company, a new model for building and running web products. The first thing they did was acquire Odeo and Twitter, and they plan to create other things, as well.
Coincidentally, all of their companies and web products were named in San Francisco. There must be something in the water!
Aptronym, a word allegedly coined by United States newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams, refers to a name that is aptly suited to its owner. Sometimes spelled aptonym, it should not be confused with apronym, which is an acronym or backronym. Anyway, the scientific term for this phenomenon is nominative determinism.
Au contraire, mon frère.
La famille Sick a toujours su conserver la tradition viticole. Jean Sick, vigneron en 1600, Jean Thomas Sick, tonnelier vigneron en 1686, sont cités sur l’arbre généalogique. En 1923 fut attribué le premier diplôme de concours de vins d’alsace à Me veuve Antoine Sick.
Nobody in this family wanted to be a doctor?
Posted: October 31st, 2006 |
Category: Uncategorized