Names for Cars

Naming automobile models is something that gets a lot of attention from manufacturers.
Almost all car names are some kind of symbolic suggestion. 

AMC Pacer

The ’70s Pacer was AMC’s attempt at a futuristic, wide-bodied compact car. The name “Pacer” was meant to suggest speed and forward motion—something pacing ahead of its time. Cool or quirky? 

Chevy Corvette

Named after a nimble, lightly armed warship, the Corvette was designed to be fast, agile, and striking. 

Ford Bronco

Built to take on the rugged terrain and challenge the Jeep, the Bronco was Ford’s wild stallion. The name called up images of untamed land and rough rides—just what off-roaders were after in the ’60s and ’70s.

Lamborghini Diablo

Spanish for “devil,” the Diablo was actually named after a legendary 19th-century fighting bull. It was designed to embody fierce power and exotic danger, just like the animal.

Chevy Blazer

The Blazer was made to blaze trails—plain and simple. Chevy wanted a name that captured rugged adventure and go-anywhere capability. The name became synonymous with early SUVs long before they ruled the roads.

Ford Mustang

Ford attempted to create its muscle car with a name that comes from both the WWII P-51 fighter plane and the free-roaming wild horses of the West which appear on the car's grille logo Fast, agile, and unapologetically American—it set the tone for generations of pony cars.

Chevy Camaro

Chevy never gave a straight answer on what “Camaro” meant—one exec famously joked it was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” The name actually comes from a French word meaning “comrade” or “friend,” which makes little sense. It sounds sporty and fit with the "C" naming convention used by Chevrolet at the time. 

Volkswagen Golf

Believe it or not, the Golf isn’t named after the sport—it’s supposed to be short for Gulf Stream, part of VW’s theme of naming cars after winds and currents (as in their Scirocco, Passat, Jetta). A breezy name for a zippy hatchback.

Rolls-Royce Ghost

“Ghost” pays homage to the original Silver Ghost from 1906, known for being incredibly smooth and silent for its time. Today’s Ghost follows that lineage: ultra-luxurious, eerily quiet, and almost supernatural in how effortlessly it glides.

Dodge Charger

The Charger name suggests a horse trained for battle,and a battle cry, but today we probably first think of a device for charging a battery or battery-powered equipment - power. Whether you’re looking at the ’60s classics or today’s Hellcat beasts, the name fits.

Plymouth Barracuda

Before the Mustang even hit the streets, the Barracuda made waves. Named after the sleek, dangerous predator of the sea, it perfectly described the car’s sharp styling and serious bite on the drag strip.

Audi Quattro

“Quattro” simply means “four” in Italian, but for Audi, it was a statement. It marked the debut of their revolutionary all-4-wheels-drive system in a sleek coupe. The name became so iconic that “quattro” is now practically synonymous with AWD across the industry.

AMC Javelin

Designed to take on the likes of the Mustang and Camaro, the Javelin carried a name that evoked precision and power. Like its namesake spear, it was built to be thrown into the muscle car wars with deadly intent.

idioms about memory

 

I have another site where I wrote about three kinds of memory neurons, and referenced some idioms around memory. We have a lot of them in English

• Clear your memory
• Jog your memory
• Have something etched in your mind
• Stroll down memory lane
• Lose your train of thought
• Have a mental picture
• Have something slip your mind. 
• Memory like a sieve
• Memory like an elephant
• A mind like a steel trap.

Grape Nuts Cereal

Th78blue, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Grape Nuts cereal is named for its resemblance to grape seeds. But is is made from wheat and barley, and contains no grapes or nuts.  

The cereal was created by Charles William "C.W." Post in 1897. Mr. Post used a coffee grinder to break the baked cereal into small pieces that resembled grape seeds. Post believed that glucose, or "grape sugar," formed during baking. That sugar and the resulting cereal's nutty flavor inspired the name. 


Grape-Nuts was marketed as a health food. It was often eaten with milk, but could also be used in savory recipes like meatloaf and puddings. 

Grape-Nuts was featured in soldiers' rations during World War II as it is a nutrient-dense cereal that's high in fiber and protein. It has a whole-grain base that provides a steady energy source. 

Moby Grape

Columbia Records promotional photo, 1967.
L-R: Skip Spence, Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson

Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966 as part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene. The band actually had elements of rock, folk music, pop, blues, and country music.

Their name came from a joke that played off Herman Melville's Moby Dick: What's big and purple and lives in the sea? Moby Grape. member Don Stevenson says that it was a time of rather silly, nonsensical band names like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Electric Prunes, and 13th Floor Elevator.

They were one of the few groups in which all members were lead vocalists and songwriters. Before they had recorded, they had played many club gigs with all original songs. 

A trivia bit about the 1967 debut album is that the band photo has Don Stevenson making a middle finger gesture over a washboard. It is airbrushed off later cover and poster photos making the original album quite collectible.

The later years and albums became overshadowed by the story of Skip Spence. Alexander "Skip" Spence had been a guitarist but but became the drummer for the Jefferson Airplane on their first album but was kicked out after that. He went back to guitar when the Moby Grape was formed.

Spence had been using a lot LSD along with many in the San Francisco psychedelic scene. He developed severe mental illnesses, including a belief that he was the Antichrist. He'd attacked two of his bandmates with an axe, and had also gone to the CBS building and attacked people there. Luckily nobody was injured, but he was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Lewis, who had left the band for a time, returned to take his place.

There are several collections of their "best of" songs and reissues of their original albums.

In 2018 a detailed biography - What's Big And Purple And Lives In The Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story by Cam Cobb was published.

Trivia: Peter Lewis is the son of the film star Loretta Young,

For Contrast: They went to Columbia Studios in March 1967 to cut their first album, which took five days. The Beach Boys were also in Columbia studios over the same five days, in another studio in the complex, and spent all 5 days just doing vocal overdubs for the “Heroes and Villains” single.

Supertramp

Supertramp is an English rock band formed in London in 1969. The band's songwriting founders, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, originally called their band "Daddy" but to avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, the band changed its name to "Supertramp." 

That name was inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies, who was a Welsh poet and writer who spent much of his life as a tramp or hobo, in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also became one of the most popular poets of his time. His writing focused on nature, observations about life's hardships, his tramping adventures, and the various characters he met. In 1948, the BBC Home Service recorded a version of the book in 15 episodes narrated by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

Rick Davies, founder and only constant member, shared the same surname as the Welsh writer, but it was original guitarist and lyricist Richard Palmer-James who suggested the name. Palmer left the band after only 16 months, and they carried on for four decades. In 1986, the group released a collectible compilation titled The Autobiography of Supertramp, a direct reference to the book.

They started as a progressive band but moved to a more pop-oriented approach which led to their most popular album, Breakfast in America. Released in March 1979, it reached number 3 in the UK and number 1 in the US and Canada. The album spawned four successful singles (more than their first five albums combined): three of Hodgson's songs, "The Logical Song", "Take the Long Way Home" and "Breakfast in America," and Davies's "Goodbye Stranger." 

The Very Best of Supertramp is their hits package and Slow Motion is their eleventh and final studio album, released in April 2002.

Official Site www.supertramp.com

My Ears Are Burning

If someone says “My Ears Are Burning” they mean that they think someone is talking about them behind their back.

The origin comes from Ancient Rome. Romans paid particular attention to bodily sensations. They believed signs could be omens of good or bad luck, depending on where these sensations occurred. 

The left-hand side was associated with bad luck and the right side was good luck. 

A burning sensation in the left ear indicated criticism. Burning in the right ear was associated with praise.

Over the centuries, the two merged and it became a more generalized feeling that you were being talked about. There is no science behind it, just superstition, and no actual burning sensation is required to feel like you are being talked about in either a good or bad way. 

38 Special

The band in 2010

38 Special (AKA .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-eight Special) is an American rock band formed by singer-guitarists Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1974, the band practiced in an old barn near Yulee, Florida. They kept the barn locked and nailed down from the outside so their equipment would be safe and entered by climbing a ladder into a second-story loft. One day, someone called the cops thinking there were illegal activities there. 

The barn was surrounded by Nassau County Sheriffs and when the bandmates peered out, they saw a bunch of .38 Special guns pointed at them. The .38 Special was the standard service cartridge for the majority of United States police departments from the 1920s to the 1990s. As the story goes, the band members were unable to come out because of a padlock on the door. One of the cops said, "That's all right. We'll let this .38 special do the talking", and shot off the lock.

They are known for their hit songs, including "Hold On Loosely" and "Caught Up in You", among various other Top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s and early 1990s, including "Rockin' into the Night", "You Keep Runnin' Away", "If I'd Been the One", "Back Where You Belong", "Teacher, Teacher", "Like No Other Night", "Second Chance" and "The Sound of Your Voice."

Though without any original members, a 38 Special band still tours.

The Very Best of the A&M Years (1977-1988)

Anthology -38 Special
The Best of .38 Special - 20th Century Masters
Wild-Eyed Southern Boys
Tour de Force
Strength in Numbers
Special Forces
38 Special
38 Special - Live
Rock & Roll Strategy
Rockin' Into the Night
The Millennium Collection: The Best of .38 Special
Live at Sturgis
Best Shots
Drivetrain
Extended Versions Double Bill - Lynyrd Skynyrd / 38 Special
Bone Against Steel
Extended Versions
Wild-Eyed Christmas Night
Special Delivery
Christmas

The Lucky Four-Leaf Clover

Irish 3-leaf clover

According to St. Patrick's Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the native Irish, and the shamrock is one of the major symbols of the holiday. 

So what is the origin of the four-leaf clover being considered lucky?

The most obvious reason is that most clovers have only three leaves, and finding a four-leaf clover is uncommon (about 1 in 5,000). Its scarcity makes it special and so a symbol of luck.

But historically, the Celts in Ireland believed four-leaf clovers had magical properties, offering protection against evil spirits and bad luck. 

Druids thought they could help detect and ward off bad omens.

Some early Christians appropriated that belief and linked the four leaves to the cross and saw them as a sign of God's favor.

Each leaf is said to represent something.
First leaf: Hope
Second leaf: Faith
Third leaf: Love
Fourth leaf: Luck

During the 19th century in Victorian britain, four-leaf clovers became a popular symbol of luck and love, often pressed into books or exchanged as tokens.

The idea of luck associated with four-leaf clovers has persisted over time, reinforced by pop culture, misinterpreted St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, and general folklore.

Feeling Under the Weather

How did  “feeling under the weather” come to mean that someone is not feeling well.

Sailors would rest under the bow of a ship if they became seasick during a voyage. This was the best place as it would protect the sailor from bad weather. Those who were ill were described as being under the weather,

Steal Your Thunder; Specious; Limelight;

Here's an origin that sounds specious to me. By the way, specious means superficially plausible, but actually wrong.  - which itself has a specious origin in late Middle English (in the sense ‘beautiful’) from the earlier Latin specious (fair).

I found that “steal your thunder” - which today means to take the attention or limelight away from someone. By the way, the term "limelight" comes from the discovery in the 1820s that heating calcium oxide with oxygen and hydrogen produces a brilliant white light. The light was used as a theatrical spotlight and to illuminate stages. 

Back to "steal your thunder" which is said to have a quite literal origin. In the 18th-century, playwright John Dennis wanted an authentic sound of thunder for his play. He invented a thunder-making machine, but his play flopped. Later, he learned that someone had seen his machine in action and made a similar one for another play. It was pretty much the same machine but was not credited with the invention. This other person had literally stolen his thunder.

Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane photographed by Herb Greene at the Matrix club, San Francisco, in 1966. 

Top row from left: Jack Casady, Grace Slick, Marty Balin; 

bottom row from left: Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner, Spencer Dryden. 

A cropped version of this photo was used for the front cover of Surrealistic Pillow.  Link

Paul Kantner put together the original Jefferson Airplane and one member he recruited was his college friend, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Kaukonen is given credit for the band's name because he has said that, "I had this friend [Steve Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people. His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane [kind of a reference to blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson]. When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, 'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'"

So the name has no real meaning. But it survived the reincarnation of the band as Jefferson Starship, but not the final version that was simply Starship.

Something that used the band's name as a direct reference is the practice of making a quick roach clip for a marijuana joint by splitting a matchstick into a “V” formation allowing the user to smoke the very end of a joint without burning their fingers. That makeshift clip became known (at least on the West Coast) as a Jefferson Airplane.

The group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. 

Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"

Despite several lineup changes, the band continued and in 1989, the classic 1966–70 lineup of Jefferson Airplane reunited (with the exception of drummer Spencer Dryden) for a tour and album. The self-titled album was released by Epic to modest sales but the accompanying tour was considered a success  Jefferson Airplane is the eighth and final studio album by the band. Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady all returned for the album and supporting tour, The album and accompanying tour would mark the last time Jefferson Airplane would perform together until their 1996 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jefferson Airplane evolved into Jefferson Starship in January 1974. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albums and had nine top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

1975's Red Octopus marked the official return of Marty Balin as vocalist. The Balin-penned single "Miracles” peaked at #3 on the chart, and along with the single “Play on Love” helped to propel the album to eventual multiple-platinum status and topped the Billboard 200 chart. It might surprise fans to know that it would be the biggest-selling album of the band's career. 

Starship was initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship, but because of a different musical direction and loss of personnel, a lawsuit settlement led to a name change that required dropping the "Jefferson" in the name. Their 1985 pop album Knee Deep in the Hoopla had two number-one hits -"We Built This City" and "Sara."

MAIN ALBUMS of the Original Band Lineup

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966)

Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

After Bathing at Baxter's (1967)

Crown of Creation (1968)

Volunteers (1969)

Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969)

Skype

Microsoft announced this past week that their once-popular Skype product would be gone in early May 2025 to focus on its its flagship Teams service. Skype was considered a pioneer in how people communicated online across borders before competition exploded from platforms like FaceTime, WhatsApp, Slack, and Zoom. 

But why was it called Skype?

The name "Skype" originates from "Sky peer-to-peer," which was shortened to "Skyper" and then further shortened to "Skype" because the domain name "Skyper.com" had already been taken.