Catsup or Ketchup?

The etymology of the word ketchup has multiple possibilities. We know that in the 17th century, the Chinese had a mixture of pickled fish and spices called (in the Amoy dialect) kôe-chiap or kê-chiap. This was far from the modern-day tomato based condiment we use, but similar in sound and use.

By the early 18th century, the Chinese table sauce had made it to the Malay states (present day Malaysia and Singapore). There, English explorers discovered it and the Indonesian-Malay word used for the sauce was kecap (pronounced "kay-chap"). It's not hard to see that evolving in English to "ketchup" spelling. American Colonists brought it with them to the New World. We find the word in the 1690 Dictionary of the Canting Crew.

The spelling of "catsup" in American English is considered "a failed attempt at Anglicization." Catsup is the dominant term in American English and Canadian English, and it is particularly prominent in some southern US states.

It was news to me that in some places catsup is considered to be tomato sauce that is used on pasta and not as the condiment.

TASER

A taser (without capitalization) is a weapon firing barbs attached by wires to batteries, causing temporary paralysis. We have even turned it into a verb, as in "Don't tase me, bro!"

But I saw TASER listed as an acronym, so I did some digging about its origin.

Jack Cover, a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969 and completed the device in 1974. The "Taser Public Defender" used gunpowder as its propellant, which meant it was classified as a firearm in 1976. Later improvements by the company Taser International to make the "Air Taser," made the U.S. firearms regulator, the ATF, change the classification to it not being a firearm.

In 2003, Taser International released a new weapon called the Taser X26, which used "shaped pulse technology" and in 2009 they released the X3, which can fire three shots before reloading.

Much more interesting to me is that Jack Cover created the name of his weapon from from reading one of the popular, pulp-fiction novels about Tom Swift. Fictional character Tom Swift is the protagonist of a series of books that were similar to the later Hardy Boys but with Tom inventing what in the time would be considered science-fiction. I read a number of these books as a kid and recall his "electric rifle."

The electric rifle was a gun that fires bolts of electricity and could be calibrated to different levels of range, intensity and lethality. It could shoot through solid walls without leaving a hole, but also kill an animal or human. The globe of light that it shot was compared to ball lightning.

Jack Cover came up with TASER which stands for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle. This refers to the weapons marketed by Taser International. That middle initial (the 'A') was not part of  Tom's name in the books, but added to created a pronounceable acronym.

"Police issue X26 TASER-white" by Junglecat - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

Pogo Stick

A pogo stick is a device for jumping off the ground in a standing position, through the aid of a spring.

They can be used as a toy, exercise equipment, or extreme sports instrument. It has had peaks and valleys in its popularity. It was very popular in the late 1960s and 70s, and is enjoying some renewed popularity now in extreme sports via the new sport of extreme pogo or "Xpogo".

It consists of a pole with a handle at the top and footrests near the bottom, and a spring located somewhere along the pole. The spring joins two sections of the pole, which extends below the footpads. It can be steered by shifting one's weight off the centerline of the spring in the desired horizontal direction thus producing horizontal locomotion.

A pogo stick that was not called a pogo stick was patented in 1891 by George H. Herrington of Wichita, Kansas "for leaping great distances and heights". This was an antecedent of the pogo stick as well as today's spring stilts.

We can call the pogo stick an eponym because the modern pogo stick name supposedly comes from a redesigned version that looks like the one we know by Hans Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall whose combined names give us "PoGo." They applied for a German patent in 1920 and described their device as a "spring end hopping stilt."

Taylor Ham or Pork Roll

Taylor ham or pork roll is a type of breakfast meat that is commonly available in and around New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Having grown up in Jersey, I grew up with this product and I assumed it was a pretty modern invention - sort of a Jersey SPAM.

Wrong.

It actually goes back to 1856 and was invented/popularized by John Taylor of Trenton, New Jersey, although other variations, including a packed minced ham, may date back to the Battle of Trenton which took place on December 26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War.

Did General George Washington have a Jersey Breakfast sandwich before crossing the Delaware River near Trenton, New Jersey? No wonder they kicked Hessian butt!

a 3 pounder - http://jerseyporkroll.com

John Taylor kept the recipe for his "Taylor's Prepared Ham" a secret. But he was forced to change the name after the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was passed, since the product did not meet the new legal definition of "ham".

He rechristened it "Pork Roll" and it was sold as both "Taylor's Pork Roll" and "Trenton Pork Roll".

The real thing is sold 1-3 pound unsliced rolls packed in a cotton bag. But in Jersey, you're more likely to buy it prepared at deli, diner, or food trucks. Its classic presentation is some pan-fried or grilled pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwich, known as a "Jersey Breakfast." Condiments include salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, or hot sauce. The sandwich is normally served with American cheese on a hard roll or bagel.

Sliced halves of a Jersey Breakfast sandwich

In Philadelphia, the hard roll is commonly replaced with the local favorite "long roll" which is also used for hoagies and cheesesteaks.

Pork roll trivia:
 

When you pan-fry or grill the slices, people will make one to three cuts from the outer edges inwards towards the center to prevent the pork roll from curling up in the middle.  

The resulting cooked slices have been nicknamed things like "fireman's badges" or "Pac-Man bacon" based on the resulting shapes.

Bayonet and Bayonne

World War II soldier with rifle & bayonet

The bayonet is a word known back to 1610. Originally a type of dagger it was later afapted as a steel stabbing weapon fitted to the muzzle of a firearm.

It comes from the French baionnette  said to be from Bayonne, a city in Gascony, France where supposedly they were first made. It may also have entered the language as a diminutive of the Old French bayon  meaning a "crossbow bolt."

The city name is from the Latin baia "bay" and probably the Basque words meaning "good" and ibai "river" - good bay. The place served as a kind of link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea and by the 13th century, the city was an important port.

The New Jersey city of Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south and New York Bay to the east. The city name is probably from from Bayonne, France, from which Huguenots settled for a year before the founding of New Amsterdam.

Angora Wool

Angora rabbit
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/EnglishAngoraRabbit.jpg

Angora wool refers to the downy coat produced by the Angora rabbit.

Angora wool (AKA Angora fiber) is distinct from mohair, which comes from the Angora goat. It is sometimes confused with cashmere, which comes from the cashmere goat.

This wool is known for its silky softness, thin fibers, and what knitters refer to as a halo (fluffiness). It is warmer and lighter than wool due to the hollow core of the angora fiber.

This type of wool gets its name from Angora, a city in central Turkey which gave its name to the goat (1745 in English), and to its silk-like wool, and to a cat whose fur resembles it (1771 in English). The city's name is from the Greek word for "anchor, bend"

Bialy and Bagel

A bialy is a roll that is similar to a bagel usually with onion flakes sprinkled on it.

Bialy is a Yiddish word and a short form of bialystoker kuchen, from Białystok, a city in Poland.

This small roll was a traditional dish in Polish Ashkenazi cuisine but has become more generally popular.

A traditional bialy has a diameter of up to 15 cm (6 inches) and is a chewy yeast roll similar to a bagel. But, unlike a bagel which is boiled before baking, a bialy is simply baked. It doesn't have a hole in the middle, but simply a depression which, before baking, is filled with diced onions and other ingredients, including garlic, poppy seeds, or bread crumbs.

Białystok, Poland literally means "white river," from Polish biały "white" + stok "river" because the Bialy River flows through the region.

According to Wikipedia, contrary to common legend, the bagel was not created in the shape of a stirrup to commemorate the victory of Poland's King Jan III Sobieski over the Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. It was actually invented much earlier in Kraków, Poland, as a competitor to the obwarzanek, a lean bread of wheat flour designed for Lent.

In the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, the bajgiel became a staple of the Polish national diet,and a staple of the Slavic diet generally.

That the name originated from beugal - an old spelling of Bügel, meaning bail/bow or bale. It is thought that it may stem from the shape of traditionally handmade bagels not being perfectly circular but rather slightly stirrup-shaped.

Variants of the word beugal are used in Yiddish and Austrian German to refer to a somewhat similar form of sweet filled pastry. The Mohnbeugel is made with poppy seeds and the Nussbeugel is made with with ground nuts.

According to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary, 'bagel' derives from the transliteration of the Yiddish 'beygl', which came from the Middle High German 'böugel' or ring, which itself came from 'bouc' (ring) in Old High German, similar to the Old English 'bēag' '(ring), and 'būgan' (to bend or bow).

Similarly another etymology in the Webster's New World College Dictionary says that the Middle High German form was derived from the Austrian German 'beugel', a kind of croissant, and was similar to the German 'bügel', a stirrup or ring.

No matter what the origin, both are delicious.

LEGO

Lego (trademarked in capitals as LEGO) is a popular line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. http://www.lego.com

The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, mini-figures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects.

Lego began manufacturing interlocking toy bricks in 1949.


In the years since, a global Lego subculture has developed, supporting movies, games, competitions, and five themed amusement parks.

The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932.

In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well".

PEZ

http://www.burlingamepezmuseum.com/pezexhibit.html

Pez (which is trademarked as PEZ in capital letters) is the brand name of an Austrian candy company. Of course, most of know them more for the dispensers than for the rather forgettable candy inside.

The mechanical PEZ pocket dispensers have been quite collectible. The candy is a small pressed block of sugar. PEZ dispensers hold 12 candies.

The name Pez comes from using the letters at the start, middle and end of the German word for peppermint, pfefferminz, which was the first Pez flavor.

The candy and dispenser was originally introduced in Austria, but went worldwide and is particularly popular in the U.S.

The logo is all-uppercase and in perspective and made from 44 Pez candies.

The company says over 3 billion candy bricks are consumed each year in the U.S. alone - though I suspect a lot of those candies that are sold are NEVER consumed!

Not every PEZ candy or dispenser has been a hit. Some failed PEZ flavors include coffee, eucalyptus, menthol, and flower. Flower?

The highest verifiable sale of a Pez dispenser was a private sale of a Mickey Mouse softhead at $7000 between an Austrian dealer and a California collector. This dispenser was never available for sale to the public, and was a factory prototype. The high prices which some Pez items fetch has led to the manufacturing of fake Pez items as well. The 2006 eBay sale of a clear 50s Space Gun for $11,000 took place but according to noted Pez author, David Welch, the dispenser was later proven by chemical testing to be a well-made fake. (Wikipedia)

www.PEZ.com

What better tribute to our distinguished Presidents this weekend than to push back their heads to get some sugar?

This is Volume 1 in a series.

Snopes.com

You know that email you got about helping someone in the UK get a few million dollars out of a bank? Maybe you got an email about missing children or a prayer request for a dying child. Did you wonder if forwarding a message could really get you money from Microsoft?

Hopefully, you have also come across snopes.com. It is a site run by David and Barbara Mikkelson and it is a website to find out the truth about many urban legends on the Internet.

David Pogue did an interview with them on CBS News Sunday Morning segment. They revealed the origin of the name. Snopes is a family of characters in the works of William Faulkner. The Snopes were at the bottom of  "social ladder." The connection to the site's purpose? None.  It's short, easily remembered and distinctive and that's good for a site name and URL.

Which of these Net legends have any truth to them?  Answers at snopes.com

1. Cellphone companies are going to make cellphone numbers available through a directory assistance service and that will pump your phone number to telemarketers. 
2. In August, Mars is going to be so close to Earth that it will appear larger than any time in our lifetime. 
3. Phil Collins told Jews to leave his concert.
4. An email postcard that you get contains a virus.
5. A Canadian lawyer left his money to whichever woman had the most babies in the decade after his death.

Next time someone tells you via email or in person that they are mad about the government taking "In God We Trust" off the new Presidential dollar coins, you can say, "Well, according to snopes...

TMZ

A reader sent in a "request" asking me about the story behind the website and TV show TMZ.

In the time that it took for him to email me, he could have found the answer online, so I don't normally do requests (though I do like getting corrections and additions). But, I didn't know the origin of TMZ myself, so I took up the task.

TMZ broke the MJ death story and got a lot of press for it.

TMZ.com is a celebrity news web site and TV show that started five years ago as part of AOL when America Online was a bigger name online. The site is now solely owned by Warner Bros.

My guess would have been that TMZ meant "the movie zone" but that's not it. It actually stands for the "thirty-mile zone" which is more of a Hollywood insider reference.

The 30 mile zone (or "studio zone") is a thirty-mile circle centered on the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Shooting films and video within this zone is considered "local" while shooting outside this zone are subject to mileage and travel time charges by the talent and crew.

Take a look at a map of the TMZ

Rolls Royce

  
Another product eponym is found in the famed automotive manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

Stuart Rolls and Henry Royce, one a motor enthusiast and the other an engineering genius, lent their names to the cars.

Rolls-Royce Limited was a British car and aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce in 1906.

Odd Job and a Rolls-Royce from James Bond

In 1884, Henry Royce started an electrical and mechanical business. He made his first car, a two-cylinder Royce 10, in his Manchester factory in 1904, and was introduced to Charles Rolls at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on 4 May of that year. Rolls was proprietor of an early motor car dealership, C.S.Rolls & Co. in Fulham.





Rolls-Royce from the Inside: The Humour, The Myths, The Truths
Rolls-Royce and Bentley: Classic Elegance (Open Road)
The Rolls Royce (Shire Library)

Toyota

     

Toyota, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan. At its peak, Toyota employed approximately 320,000 people worldwide. It is the world's largest automobile maker by sales.

The eponymous company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. The letter change in the family name was thought to have made the name clearer for pronunciation outside of Japan.

In 1934, while still a department of Toyota Industries, it created its first product, the Type A engine, and, in 1936, its first passenger car, the Toyota AA.

Toyota also owns and operates Lexus and Scion brands and has a majority shareholding stake in Daihatsu and Hino Motors, and minority shareholdings in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. The company includes 522 subsidiaries.

Toyota is headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi and in Tokyo. In addition to manufacturing automobiles, Toyota provides financial services through its Toyota Financial Services division and also builds robots.

The Toyota Way
Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

Chanel No 5 Perfume

Chanel No. 5 is actually the first (not the fifth) fragrance launched by Parisian couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. It has been on sale continuously since its introduction in 1921.

It has been described as "the world's most legendary fragrance," and ranks on the top places in the perfumery sales charts. It remains the best-selling fragrance of Parfums Chanel, and the company estimates that a bottle is sold worldwide every 55 seconds.

The scent had been created by the French perfumer Ernest Beaux. Beaux had his first big success in 1912 with the "Bouquet de Napoleon." His "Bouquet de Catherine" was not successful and because the German descent of Catherine the Great was held responsible for that, the scent was renamed "Rallet Nº 1" at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The name change did not improve the sales due to the difficult economic circumstances at war time, and the October revolution.

At the end of 1919, Beaux, as one of the last former employees of Rallet at Chiris in La Bocca, France which had bought Rallet. To adapt his perfumery formula to the raw materials available there and the price situation then, Beaux continued his work on Rallet Nº 1. This was how the series of adaptation trials originated. Coco Chanel would later chose the vial labeled  "Nº 5" as her first signature scent.




The creation and conception of this exceptional perfume is surrounded by many legends, to which Coco Chanel and Ernest Beaux contributed themselves considerably.

Browse Chanel No. 5 products