“Come Into the Arms of the Shoving Leopard”

The Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930) was famously reputed to swap consonants in his speech (“The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer”).

His legend has grown so popular that today it’s hard to known which “spoonerisms” really happened. For instance, Spooner might really have asked, “Is the bean dizzy?”, but he almost certainly never said, “You have hissed all my mystery lectures and were caught fighting a liar in the quad. Having tasted two worms, you will leave by the next town drain.”

But we can be fairly certain that when he proposed a toast to “The Boar’s Head” (a pub), it was not a spoonerism.

He was a priest, after all.

November 16, 2005February 27, 2011 | Language

Just Teller

Teller, of the magician duo Penn and Teller, has no first or middle name. His parents named him Raymond Joseph Teller, but he had the given names legally removed. On government documents his first name is listed as NFN, meaning “no first name.”

November 15, 2005March 24, 2006 | Language

“It Means Just What I Choose It to Mean”

Do you recognize this passage?

Homme petit d’homme petit, s’attend, n’avale
Homme petit d’homme petit, à degrés de bègues folles
Anal deux qui noeuds ours, anal deux qui noeuds s’y mènent
Coup d’un poux tome petit tout guetteur à gaine

No? Try reading it aloud.

Cognitive scientists use it to illustrate the complexity of human communications.