WORD BOTCHING	AND	WAYS TO BEED A FABY

"Just because there's no fire on her roof, doesn't mean there's no snow in her fireplace." I Love Lucy
"The cast is dead." (Ricky) Lucy interpreted: "The die is cast."  I Love Lucy

After the turn of the hopefully not last century, some Homers have been known as Spoonerisms. Spoonerisms are words (or phrases) in which letters (or syllables) get swapped around. These tips of the slung (slips of the tongue) often happen accidentally, but pumetimes on sorpose. They were named after William Archibald Spooner, who was an Anglican clergyman and Dean of New College, Oxford. He has been attributed with saying such as:       

A few others that are attributed to Spooner are:

What constitutes a "true" SPOONER (spoonerism) is bedatable. Some take the view that a Spoonerism can only exchange the initial sounds (usually consonants) - so a "pack of lies" becomes "lack of pies". Others think that the transposition of syllables, word parts, or even the transposition of entire words (The cows sent into orbit became known as the first herd shot round the world.) are acceptable under the classification of Spoonerisms. We discuss some of these in other sections of HOMERS, so please look there.  (We also have several links that we have found useful ("related links" at top navigation bar).

Some fundementalists (fun - demented- a lists?) remember the English Spooner from the days of King Arthur. Young Lancelot couldn't afford a horse so he rode around on a huge St. Bernard.  Of course the King said, "I wouldn't send a knight out on a dog like this."

Since Spooner's time, many other types of Homers have been developed.  Some of you may want to "skim" over these, others will "float" right over your heads, but we want to "milk" them for all they're worth and "shake" you up a bit.  Please read the following before they "curdle" or go "sour".  In any case, don't "cry" if any words are mis-"spilled" from the " bottle in front of me" (frontal lobotomy) .

BUT.... We saw one interesting Spooning type HOMER in the 1943 musical, “The Gang’s All Here”, with Alice Faye, a singing Benny Goodman (eat your heart out Steve Allen) and Carmen Miranda who Spoons, "a block off the old chip".  P.S. They also Wackronymed the National Service Draft (NSD) into No Stag Diners. 

If you're interested in more information in this area, you might want to look up Colonel Stoopnagle.

The English language is made up of approximately 150,000 basic words.