sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 26,692
- Like
- 116,403
Welcome to Spoonerism Day!
Today is the birthday of the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, born in London in 1844. Spooner lectured in history, philosophy, and divinity at Oxford University. He was small in stature and an albino, but it was his words not his appearance that made him famous.
Spooner has been immortalized in the dictionary by what we call todayspoonerisms: slips of the tongue where the initial consonant sounds of words are reversed, as in one of Spooner's famous flubs -- he was officiating a wedding and after pronouncing the couple man and wife said to the groom: "Son, it is now kisstomary to cuss the bride." The error, of course, was reversing the sounds of the c in customary with the k in kiss (1).
Reverend Spooner is certainly not the only person to make this kind of error. In fact, it is quite common, and, as explained by Richard Lederer, more common in English than any other language:
The larger the number of words in a language, the greater the likelihood that two or more words will rhyme. Because English possesses almost four times the number of words of any other language, it is afflicted with a delightful case of rhymatic fever. A ghost town becomes a toast gown. A toll booth becomes a bowl tooth. A bartender becomes a tar bender. Motion pictures become potion mixtures. And your local Wal-Mart becomes a Mall Wart!
More rhymes mean more possible spoonerisms. That’s why English is the most tough and rumble of all languages, full of thud and blunder. That's why English is the most spoonerizable tongue ever invented. That's why you will enter this discussion optimistically and leave it misty optically.
SU News
It Was Right to Appoint Mike Hopkins as SU Basketball Coach-In-Waiting (PS; reader emails; Poliquin)
As promised, at this time in every week this is your space and your space only. Which means I plan to sit back, put my feet up and let you do the heavy lifting.
Have you got something that you'd like to say … um, write? Well, here's your chance and here's your forum — every Monday. Or in this case, Tuesday.
Anyway, all you have to do is send along your correspondence (with your name and the identity of your hometown) to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. Do that, and more likely than not your words will see the digital light of day in this thin patch of cyberspace.
Today's emails? They amount to something of a potpourri. Have at 'em …
In the matter of Mike Hopkins' being named Syracuse University's head-basketball-coach-in-waiting, I think you may be giving Jim Boeheim credit that is not wholly deserved.
No one with a brain in his or her head would NOT have made that decision to endorse Hopkins as Boeheim's successor. It was the perfect, and right, call. And not because Boeheim might have been otherwise upset.
After all, selecting anyone else but Hop would have let Jim off the hook.
...
Top Career Moments for Each Boeheim's Army SU Alum (DO; Schneidman)
A collection of former Syracuse basketball players and two others will play their second game in The Basketball Tournament Sunday afternoon. After a 91-73 win over 13th-seeded NYCSuperstars, No. 1 seed Boeheim’s Army will face 20th & Olney, a collection of former La Salle players, on Sunday at 4:15 p.m..
Here are the top moments from the careers of each Syracuse alum on the Boeheim’s Army roster. Not included are Donte Greene and Rick Jackson, who won’t be with the team for Sunday’s game, and Josh Pace, who is no longer on the team.
Baye Moussa Keita – 2013 Big East tournament semifinals vs. Georgetown
Keita anchored fifth-seeded Syracuse against the top-seeded Hoyas en route to a 58-55 overtime win. Keita tied for a team high with 13 points and went a perfect 7-of-7 from the foul line. He pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and played a career-high 41 minutes in SU’s semifinal win.
Hakim Warrick – “The Block”
With under three seconds remaining in the 2003 national championship, Kansas’ Michael Lee received a pass in the corner from Kirk Hinrich with the Jayhawks trailing by three. He put up a shot from behind the arc that would’ve sent the game to overtime, but Warrick came soaring in to tip the ball and preserve Syracuse’s only national title to this day.
Mookie Jones – December 2009 vs. Oakland
Jones had his career derailed after a promising start, including one game in which he delivered 13 points against Oakland in his redshirt freshman season. The 13 points were a career high and they came in just 16 minutes. He also shot 44.6 percent from 3 that season, good for second on SU’s single-season record list at the time.
...
Other
Those Heels Need to be Pressed to the Hamstrings for Top Scores...
Why Don't You Go Jump Into Onondaga Lake? A County Legislator Does Just That (PS; Baker)
Saying it's clean enough to swim in is one thing. Doing it is another.
Today, three months after the DEC declared Onondaga Lake safe for swimming, a county legislator took a ceremonial dip in the once polluted waters.
Ryan McMahon, chairman of the Onondaga County legislature, cannon-balled into the lake near Willow Bay park around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. He preempted an event scheduled for Wednesday when a group of yet-to-be announced local leaders will jump in.
McMahon said he is unable to attend Wednesday's event because he has a speaking engagement at the Jubilee Homes dinner. However, he didn't want to be the only one who didn't jump in.
"I said I would do it so I should put my money where my mouth is," McMahon said prior to the jump. "I didn't want it to look like I had any reservations or excuses."
Wearing a gray Syracuse t-shirt and blue trunks, McMahon launched from a pontoon boat driven by Joe Bufano of the Syracuse Chargers rowing club. He jumped in, swam the breaststroke and climbed back in the boat.
"I feel really refreshed," he said afterward.
McMahon described his jump and tomorrow's event an effort to change minds about the lake. He hopes to inform people about the changing makeup of what has traditionally been a heavily polluted lake.
...
