Fake Etymology -- Early Urban Legends

Urban legends, urban myths.



Everyone seems to know of an example of a popular story that has no basis in truth -- these are now commonly known as urban legends or urban myths.

Well, today at the pub (yes, I'm aware that this seems to be the main source for many of my entries here so far [maybe I should go out and get a life]), I came across a couple of individuals (Brits!) who argued convincingly that the derivation of the word "posh" was based on an acronym from an expression that related to the phrase " Port Out, Starboard Home", which supposedly referred to the most desirable cabin locations on cruise ships travelling around the British colonies in the Far East. As one online source points out:

"Before
air-conditioning, such cabins would remain in the shade en route".


This false derivation seems to be supported by the online sources I've checked

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/p/po/posh.htm

http://tafkac.org/language/etymology/posh_etymology_of.html).

When the people at the pub provided me with the apparently false origin of this word I was initially convinced.

I'm now wondering why we seem to be so willing to accept instances of explanations that seem to make common sense. Why are we, as a species so gullible?

I know that one of the most difficult tasks I encounter in my job is to try and foster critical thinking skills among my students. Why can't everyone be the skeptical old bastard that I am?

Kill Bill? -- Not Quite Yet

Over the last couple of weeks I've heard a couple of cuts from last year's
release by good old Capt. Kirk himself, William Shatner and, believe it or not,
it's quite compelling.

In case you haven't heard the album (Has
Been), here's a link that will allow you to stream his cover of
Pulp's "Common People" ... .mov (link from shoutlink.com).

Bill's has also been out promoting the album. 
Here's a link to a page where
you can see his live performance of the song on The Tonight Show last October
(this link also has a couple of other videos of Joe Jackson's recent TV
appearances).

Perspective is everything.

A friend sent me an email with some images of work produced by artist Julian Beever that dramatically demonstrates the importance of perspective.

This first image of pavement art is one viewed from the perspective intended by Beever.



This is the image from the "wrong" perspective.



As I understand it, this type of work represents an optical anamorphose, a specific case of anamorphic images which one site defines as "optical perspective toys."

Here are a couple of links you might be interested in exploring:

Julian Beever's Pavement Art

Anamorphoses, the World of Hidden Images

Can Anyone Explain?

Over the last few months I've created something of a discussion at my local pub. I've asked several people who were born in Scotland if they could explain the difference between the use of the terms "Scotch" and "Scottish". My argument is that it is perfectly okay to call someone who was born in Scotland Scotch. This usage seems in accord with common dictionary definitions as below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scotch (skŏch)
n.

1. (used with a pl. verb) The people of Scotland.
2. Scots English.
3. Scotch whisky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

However, when I've used this term to refer to people from Scotland, these very same people appear somewhat offended and argue that the correct term is "Scottish". When I ask these people to explain why "Scotch" is incorrect they haven't been able to give me any reasonable explanations and just say that my use of the term "Scotch" to refer to people from Scotland is incorrect if not offensive.

Does anyone have any idea why this may be the case?