Tim Hortons Gets Brownie Points for Word Play

Tim Hortons is advertising a limited-time Caramel Chocolate Brownie Iced Capp Supreme. The tagline for the campaign is "Brownie Points for Caramel".

The above image is from the Tim Hortons website which includes this description of the beverage: "It's our famous Iced Capp made with creamy caramel flavor, rich chocolate whipped topping and a decadent brownie crumble."

I noticed one of the campaign billboards a week or so ago and, I must say, the tagline is one of the best I have seen in quite a while.  I absolutely love the fact that Brownie points is open to both the figurative and literal interpretation.

Brownie points: a notional mark of achievement, or kudos for performing some creditable act.

toast points: triangular pieces of toast, often without the crust, used as the base of hors d'oeuvres and canapés.

Okay, so the brownies may not actually be points, but I can certainly imagine that some of the crumbles are in the shape of triangles.

Linguistics:√ Fun:√

I love these post-it notes that came with a book I ordered. Too bad they don't sell them; I would order a carton.

And check out these fun posters from the same company

Images from Cascadilla Press

F*ckin' Word Play

Nuckin Futs

Language Log recently brought to my attention a newly trademarked (and Spoonerismized?) Australian snack food called Nuckin Futs.

What I found equally and complementary humorous was that a day or so later Cowbells at tumblr posted the following picture.

Language Fun with Savage Chickens

Love these Useless Mutants.

Book Review Briefs: The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman

"The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman" by Meg Wolitzer

ʌ ʌ (2 carets up)

What a wonderful book for young readers. Whether interested in language or not, this is an enjoyable book and I'll bet anyone who reads it will discover a new found enthusiasm for vocabulary, parts of speech, and morphology.

If the cover image didn't give it away, the book is about the game of Scrabble, more specifically, a Youth Scrabble Tournament and what brings three preteens from different states to the tournament.

Here is a summary from Penguin.com:

At first glance, Duncan Dorfman, April Blunt, and Nate Saviano don't seem to have much in common. Duncan is trying to look after his single mom and adjust to life in a new town while managing his newfound Scrabble superpower—he can feel words and pictures beneath his fingers and tell what they are without looking. April is pining for a mystery boy she met years ago and striving to be seen as more than a nerd in her family of jocks. And homeschooled Nate is struggling to meet his father's high expectations for success.

When these three unique kids are brought together at the national Youth Scrabble Tournament, each with a very different drive to win, their paths cross and stories intertwine . . . and the journey is made extraordinary with a perfect touch of magic. Readers will fly through the pages, anxious to discover who will take home the grand prize, but there's much more at stake than winning and losing.

Anagrams are a frequent topic in the book, as evidenced by these excerpts:

"Words are like clay, Dorfman," he went on. "They can be shaped and messed with not only by your hands, but also by your head."

"PROSE is an anagram of ROPES. Oh, and SPORE is too. And POSER."

Here is an excerpt that includes the topics of vocabulary, parts of speech and morphology:

Duncan thought about the word AA, for instance, which he had looked up in the Scrabble dictionary and found out that it meant "rough, cindery lava." If he hadn't known it was a noun, he might have tried to add ING onto the end of it, thinking it was a verb.

Makes me wish I was a kid again so I could read books and play Scrabble all day long.

The Circuitry of a Syntax Tree

22 Words brought this really awesome piece of artwork to my attention not too long ago, so I thought I would share it with my readers and respond with a syntax tree.

Word Play - Sponsored by the German Porn Industry

Spotted this at TYWKIWDBI.







Witness the zaniness when the back door opens on a travel bus from reputable family business "Pommerntourist"[1]. The letters "m", "m" and "e" disappear leaving the dubious name "Porntourist.

BILD [2] contacted Pommerntourist. Owner Beatrice Springmann (38) laughed: "I already know why you're calling! We only noticed once our passengers pointed it out. We cannot stick anything different on the bus, so it will stay like this for now."

[1] lit: "Pomeranian Tourist" - Pommern = region in East Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomerania
[2] Largest (by far) German tabloid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild#Criticism


Explanation from BILD translated by TYWKIWDBI reader Dirac.

A Speeding Spoonerism

Driving on I-75 North in Michigan recently, I passed an SUV with a large rear-window sticker that included the text (without image) seen below.

My first thought was that the SUV must belong to a psychiatrist with a sense of humor (one that probably hosts a radio show).

Upon googling the name, I learned that Dr. Freak Speely is actually the name of a band from Grand Blanc Michigan.

At any rate, the reason I mention this sighting is that I think the name could be one of the most appropriate spoonerisms I have seen of late; after all, it is often the case that people who speak freely are thought of as freaks.

For the uninitiated, here is the definition of spoonerism from Wikipedia - A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels or morphemes are switched (see metathesis). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.

Correction: Washington Post's Mensa Invitational

Shame on me for posting something without checking the facts first.

Back in January of 2009 I received an email that included the results of Washington Post's Mensa Invitational. There were two categories in this "contest" and I wrote one post about each of the categories. See here and here.

There is no such thing as Washington Post's Mensa Invitational.

It has just come to my attention that each January when dictionaries and other entities release their "Word of the Year" lists, an email announcing the winners of Washington Post's Mensa Invitational circulates. Each year this list of winners is, if not identical, pretty darn close.

According to the American Mensa website, "Since 2005 or earlier, the "Mensa Invitational" has been suspected to be a hoax but no confirmation has ever been made prior to this. So we're here to debunk this urban legend."

"American Mensa, nor any other Mensa entity, has ever been affiliated with The Washington Post's "Style Invitational" column and/or its contests, to the best of our knowledge. It wouldn't surprise us if many of our members have entered the contests — and perhaps even have won — but that would be the limit of the interaction."

For those of you who have not yet seen the annual "contest" results, here they are:

Take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The colour you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
18. Vowel movement: The inevitable verbal diarrhea that spews from ones' mouth when they have nothing significant to say.

Supply an alternate meanings for common words

1. coffee (n.): The person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted (adj.): Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate (v.): To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade (v.): To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly (adj.): Impotent.
6. negligent(adj.): Absent-mindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph (v.): To walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle (n.): Olive-flavoured mouthwash.
9. flatulence (n.): Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. balderdash (n.): A rapidly receding hairline.
11. testicle (n.) A humorous question on an exam.
12. rectitude (n.): The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. pokemon (n.): A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. oyster (n.) A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent (n.): An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

And here is a link to "The Style Invitational" humor column at the Washington Post.

A Pseudo-Mondegreen for Linguists

Do you remember the Prince song Automatic from the album 1999?


If not, here is a video from youtube of a live version of the song -



And the chorus -

A-u-t-o-matic

Just tell me what 2 do

A-u-t-o-matic

I'm so in love with U

Well...


whenever I hear the song, I want to sing -



I-d-i-o-matic


Another favorite is Carly Simon's Anticipation, to which I sing -



Alliteration

Snowclones in Media are Frequent(*er) than they Seem

Who would ever think that the following phrase would be turned into a snowclone.

Image from here.

I wouldn't have...until I saw a Taco Bell billboard on I-75 in Michigan with a large taco and the caption "Objects on billboard are closer than they appear."

I was not able to get a picture of the actual billboard so this image of tacos from Taco Bell will have to suffice.

At any rate, I will be honest and say that, pragmatically, the message on the billboard caption confuses me a bit. The image of the taco is unrealistically large, so of course it appears closer than it ever actually could be. This in turn makes me think that the location of the restaurant where I (the famished traveller) could get the taco is not that close. As far as billboard advertising goes, this seems counterproductive.

By the way, when looking for images of the actual billboard on the web, I came across this image that further reinforces the snowclone-ability of the phrase "Objects on billboard are closer than they appear."

Image from here.

Do A Double Take

Some inspirational wordplay.

Spotted at TYWKIWDBI

Word Play Poetry

See if you can figure out what is going on in this outstanding poem I spotted on Farragoswainscot.com.

Argument With a Mirror
by Jeffrey Barnes

"Reality is what is."
"What is reality?"
"It is obvious."
"Is it?"
"There are observable laws."
"Observable? Are there?"
"Don't you see? I do."
"I see you don't."
"Science explains what we can know."
"Can we? What explains science?"
"It finds man what meaning life has."
"Has life meaning? What man finds it?"
"Anybody—for isn't it everywhere? Look—you see?"
"I see. You look everywhere. It isn't for anybody."
"How can you say that? Many know!"
"I know many that say you can? How?"
"How can we know? I know we can!"
"How?"
"Do you doubt 'I think, therefore I am?'"
"I, therefore, think I doubt you do."
"You are so contrary!"
"So are you."

In this "poem," every exchange of dialogue is palindromic at the word level—they read the same backwards as forwards. The man arguing with his reverse image sometimes intrudes into the other's domain, risking nasty cuts and seven years bad luck.

Playing with Spelling, Sounds and Semantics - Linguistics Humor Part II

1. A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead giveaway.
3. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
4. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
5. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
6. He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
7. A calendar's days are numbered.
8. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
9. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
10. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
11. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
12. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.
13. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
14. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
15. Marathon runners with bad shoes suffer the agony of de feet.
16. Tonto’s banker…the Loan Arranger.
17. If a skunk went to church, would it sit in its own pew?

- From an e-mail, author/s unknown


For more linguistics humor check out:
Playing with Spelling, Sounds and Semantics - Linguistics Humor Part I

Word Play - License Plate Phonetics

Here is an example of a vanity plate that combines letters in an unusual way to convey a message phonetically.

What do you think this license plate says?

Please click on the comment button to submit your answer.

Hint: What is the plural of "Z"?

The Chronicles of Onnicles

I have just been introduced to a stimulating new concept in word puzzles called Onnicles. According to the creator, Sameer Kamat, Onnicles or Onamographic Articles, " creatively incorporate proper nouns (celebrity names, company names etc) in regular English sentences." The term "Onamography" was coined by Kamat as "a conjunction of the Greek words onuma (‘name’) and graphe (‘writing’)."


The object of an Onnicle is to find the names that are embedded in an article. The names often start in one word and end in an another. Onnicles begin with a clue that reveals a category of names for which you will be searching; for example, a recent Onnicle clue was "10 of the greatest guitarists of all time (according to Rolling Stone Magazine)." The clue is then followed by an article which will include the names.

I think the best way to describe Onnicles is that they are a cross between a word search puzzle, Scrabble and Jeopardy; so if you like any or all of these games give an Onnicle a try. You can learn more about Onnicles, as well as solve and create Onnicles at Onamography.

Puzzle image courtesy of http://www.englishonline.org

Word Play - License Plate Semiotics

License Plate Quiz

Custom license plates (sometimes called vanity plates) often make use of a combination of letters and numbers to convey a message semiotically.



What do you think this license plate says?





Please click on the comment button to submit your answer.


For more fun with license plates, be sure to check out Vanity Plates: Creepiness in 8 Characters or Less.

Fun with Phrases - Mixing Minced Oaths

During my youth, both "Geez Louise" and "For Pete's sake" were commonly used minced oaths in my family.

Here is my spin on the two:

Geez Louise + For Pete's sake

= For Louise's sake

Is it Sonar or So-Gnar?

Because there is an interesting linguistic aspect to this picture, I have decided to share it with my readers (really...it has nothing to do with the fact that the picture is of my son, and I am a very proud mother).



If you look closely at the logo on the bottom right side of the picture, you will see that it reads -


So-Gnar is a site devoted to "snowboarding around the world wide web". It is also an example of word play based on its obvious homophone "sonar" (after all, the logo is shaped like a submarine).

Sonar, defined by thefreedictionary.com, is:
1. A system using transmitted and reflected underwater sound waves to detect and locate submerged objects or measure the distance to the floor of a body of water.
2. An apparatus, as one in a submarine, using sonar.
3. Echolocation.

So-Gnar, on the other hand, is a hyphenated blend of the adverb "so" and the shortened, version of the adjective "gnarly".

Gnarly, defined by thefreedictionary.com, is:
1. Gnarled; misshapen.
2. Slang
a. Remarkable; outstanding.
b. Unpleasant; disgusting.

Check out this very outstanding air. It is so gnarly.

Linguistic Cartoon Favorites - Merry Christmas Word Play