Holy crap! I just got...

[etv78]

Nemo-Ever see Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker video? Same thing, people didn’t believe it either.

[Mark_Ryle]

@cjepson

Sometime recently I finally realized John Lennon’s cleverness in the song “Because”… inserting the phrases “the world turns” and “the wind blows” in verses 1 and 2 respectively.
Because THE WORLD is round it TURNS me on
Because THE WIND is high it BLOWS my mind

John was a wordsmith. Paul a tunesmith.
**
Wheelz **says in an earlier post:

Long ago, “Beatles” essentially became its own definition. Whetever the boys intended it to mean in the first place, what it means now is… them.

I ascribe it to John’s talent as a wordsmith that ‘Beatles’ completely escapes all association with the insect - ‘Crickets’ never did - or the beat generation, or beatnik, or anything else. Beatles, from the first time I ever heard it, had the quality of a completely new coined word, dignified, even majestic, connected with or depending on no other thing for its impact. It magically avoided all trace of being a play on words to the point that PlainJain in the OP never even made the connection all these years. John Lennon came up with it - the greatest band name ever - and I bet he was striving for those, and just those, qualities.

[pulykamell]

@njtt

Your professor was quite right about the pronunciation. Many of the rhymes and much of the scansion and the humor of the poem does not work unless you pronounce it Don Joo-ann.

Yep, and the main lines attesting to this are referenced above.

However, this is not because Byron was English and ignorant. It is all quite deliberate, and part of the joke of the poem. Byron was very cosmopolitan, widely traveled, and quite familiar with Spain.

Good point. The poem was meant as a satire. Byron was using the pronunciation in jest.

[crypto]

@JSexton

Didn’t the Simpsons have Bee Jewelers? I’ll leave their implied slogan as an exercise for the reader.

The Simpsons had a sign on a barn in the background of a scene once that read:

“Sneed’s Feed and Seed”
(formerly Chuck’s)

That cracked me up instantly. I am so lowbrow.

[foolsguinea]

@Mark_Ryle

John was a wordsmith. Paul a tunesmith.
**
Wheelz **says in an earlier post:
I ascribe it to John’s talent as a wordsmith that ‘Beatles’ completely escapes all association with the insect - ‘Crickets’ never did - or the beat generation, or beatnik, or anything else. Beatles, from the first time I ever heard it, had the quality of a completely new coined word, dignified, even majestic, connected with or depending on no other thing for its impact. It magically avoided all trace of being a play on words to the point that PlainJain in the OP never even made the connection all these years. John Lennon came up with it - the greatest band name ever - and I bet he was striving for those, and just those, qualities.

Really? Because I thought they shared a name with those little round Mexican cars.

[eschereal]

I only just realized that Jethro Tull … oh, nm …

[Little_Nemo]

@etv78

Nemo-Ever see Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker video? Same thing, people didn’t believe it either.

The amazing thing to me was seeing Mariah Carey in Precious. She completely deglamorized herself to play a serious dramatic role as a social worker. (Warning: the clip includes swearing and a description of child abuse.)

[Saint_Cad]

Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I’ll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan

Does that mean I should pronounce “cant” as if it ends with “unt”?

[eschereal]

@Saint_Cad

Does that mean I should pronounce “cant” as if it ends with “unt”?

So you pronounce “vaunt” such that it would rhyme with “punt”? (Not that “vaunt” is a word that I can ever remember having uttered.)

[etv78]

Nemo-Haven’t seen movie, but when I saw a clip. Kinda thought it was her, when she spoke, my head assploded!

[Nunzio_Tavulari]

@Little_Nemo

More likely it’s a reference to the chemical term “rare earth”. The rare earth elements are a group of elements that for geological reasons don’t form concentrated deposits. So it was difficult to find places where they could be commercially mined.

Rare Earth was the first white band signed to Motown*, and I’ve always felt that was somehow reflected in the name.

Motown was so sure they were the next big thing that they created a new label named after the band, to feature only white acts. The label never caught on, and disappeared in 1976 when the band released their last single.

• there was another before them but that band failed miserably and few were aware that they had ever existed.

[SiXSwordS]

@Little_Nemo

More likely it’s a reference to the chemical term “rare earth”. <snip>

I wasn’t familiar with that term. I suspect you are right.

[jnglmassiv]

I just realized I’ve been spelling judgment wrong/British my whole life. I only noticed when my browser spell check marked my judgement wrong. I stared at it for a couple minutes and couldn’t figure out why it was underlined in red. I finally looked it up and found that the no E spelling is the typical American usage while with E is UKish. I guess neither is wrong but I never recognized the difference.

[cjepson]

@SiXSwordS

I wasn’t familiar with that term. I suspect you are right.

Still, I like the common ground idea… I knew “rare earth” was a chemical term, but it never occurred to me that the band name could also have been intended as a play on words at the same time. Even if it wasn’t, it should have been!

[Ann_Hedonia]

This lyric from The Jackson 5’s “The Love You Save”

Isaac said he kissed you
Beneath the apple tree
When Benjie held your hand he felt
E-lec-tri-ci-tee!
When Alexander called you
He said he rang your chimes.
Christopher discovered
You’re way ahead of your times!

I never realized the clever wordplay with the boy names until it was pointed out to me.Now I actually like the song

Isaac said he kissed you
Beneath the apple tree
(Issac Newton, apple tree, gravity)
When Benjie held your hand he felt
E-lec-tri-ci-tee
(Ben Franklin, electricity )
When Alexander called you
He said he rang your chimes.
(Alexander Graham Bell, telephone )
Christopher discovered
You’re way ahead of your times!
(Christopher Columbus , discovering America)

[ministryman]

I have always pretended to ignore the multiple meanings of the band Mandrill.

[digs]

@jnglmassiv

I just realized I’ve been spelling judgment wrong/British my whole life. I only noticed when my browser spell check marked my judgement wrong. I stared at it for a couple minutes and couldn’t figure out why it was underlined in red. I finally looked it up and found that the no E spelling is the typical American usage while with E is UKish. I guess neither is wrong but I never recognized the difference.

Colonist here. Always seem to have spelled it with that bloody “e”. Well, time to pop round the ol’ Bailey, what? Time for me mate the barrister to hold forth on one of those foppish summary judgements, I’d s’pose.

As far as I can tell, spelling it the Brit way has had no effect.
Nudge, nudge, wink wink.

[njtt]

@For You

I only just realized that Jethro Tull … oh, nm …

was the author of Horse Hoeing Husbandry?

[JKellyMap]

@njtt

was the author of Horse Hoeing Husbandry?

Perhaps he/she meant that he’d/she’d just realized that JT was the name of the group, not the name of their lead singer/flautist.

[cochrane]

So, I started watching the Star Wars films in order from Ep. 1 through Ep. 6, and while I was watching “The Revenge of the Sith” where Yoda was battling Emporer Palpatine my mind flashed back to Robot Chicken Star Wars and I finally got Palpatine’s comment.

“So I threw the Senate at him. The whole Senate.”