Allusionist 69. How the Dickens Stole Christmas
Charles Dickens wrote about the plight of the impoverished and destitute members of British society. So how come his name is a synonym for rosy-cheeked, full-stomached, fattened-goose, hearty merry "God bless us every one" Christmas?
Avery Trufelman and Katie Mingle of 99% Invisible report from the streets of Victorian London at the annual Dickens Christmas Fair in Daly City, California, while historian Greg Jenner explains the origins of the festive traditions for which Dickens gets the credit, without even wanting the credit - in fact, his motivation for writing A Christmas Carol was far from a cash-in on Christmas.
Read moreAllusionist 32: Soho
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Around the world, there are several places called Soho, getting their names from an acronym-portmanteau-ish composite of local streets or neighbouring areas. But not the original Soho in London. In fact, London's place names are an etymological hotchpotch: landmarks present and long gone; 1000-year-old vanity projects; and Cockfosters.
This is a companion piece to the 99% Invisible episode 'The Soho Effect', about the proliferation of acranamed places.
MO SOHO INFO
Peruse lots of historical and modern pieces about Soho on the Museum of Soho's blog, and find their touch screen exhibit on Sherwood Street.
The Soho Stories app will take you on a walk around Soho and play anecdotes into your ear when you pass notorious places.
There are so many stories of Soho, usually saturated with booze and sex; these ones are quite endearing.
There’s yet another Soho in Britain’s second city, Birmingham. There are acranamers claiming it’s from ‘SOuth HOuse’, but it’s probably a second win for the hunting cry.
Learn about Pittsburgh’s former Soho.
Have a look at the first edition of Roget’s Thesaurus.
Read an 1878 account of Soho, if you can handle the verbosity.
The Londonist was keeping track of the city’s rebranded areas.
Encyclopedia Briannica just tweeted to tell me that ‘acranames’ are actually ‘clipped compounds’. Yeah, but accuracy’s gain is acromanteaus’ loss.
Hungry for more portmanteau words? There's a feastmanteau in the Brunch episode of this show.
There's a transcript of this episode at theallusionist.org/transcripts/soho.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
yarak
CREDITS:
Tony Shrimplin is the chair of the Museum of Soho, a grassroots community project which you can find at mosoho.org.uk and twitter.com/TheMuseumOfSoho. Pop into their Bowie's London exhibition, 9-23 April at 35 Beak St. You can also hear him on Soho Radio, Sundays at 10am.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, except for the bit that was produced by Avery Trufelman and 99% Invisible. The music is by Martin Austwick.
Tony and I met in the Soho landmark Black's Club, who very kindly paused the coffee machine while we were talking.
Sound the hunting cries at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
Let's reconvene in two weeks for another of these.
- HZ
Allusionist 30: US Election Lexicon
The 2016 US election isn't going away anytime soon, so let's seek refuge in etymology, as we did before in the first Election Lexicon.
EXCESS BAGGAGE:
Oxford Dictionaries have had enough of these political terms, and perhaps so have you.
Lo, here's a short history of filibustering.
The linguistics of mass persuasion: how politicians make ‘fetch’ happen.
And in case you needed to know about the sex lives of politicians during primaries, the escorts they hire are here to tell you.
If you want podcasts about the US Election, I've heard good things about FiveThirtyEight, Bandwagon, Presidential, Slate's Political Gabfest, Candidate Confessional, Left, Right & Centre, The Pollsters, Whistlestop... And there's this episode from our pals Mortified.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
flockmaster
CREDITS:
You heard from Jonathan Mitchell from The Truth; Benjamen Walker from Theory of Everything; Lauren Spohrer from Criminal; Hrishikesh Hirway from Song Exploder; Nick van der Kolk from Love + Radio; and Avery Trufelman and Katie Mingle from 99% Invisible.
This episode was produced by Matt Hill and me. The theme tune is by Martin Austwick.
Say hello at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman, regardless of on which shoulder you sport your parrot.
