# Non-musical Mondegreens **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 28, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354 "2019-02-28T23:04:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/1 "2019-02-28T23:04:02Z")
Most examples of Mondegreens [Mondegreen - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen) are from songs (people who think the words are “Gladly, the cross-eyed bear” not “Gladly, the cross I’d bear”). Anyone have good examples of times you’ve misheard something not in a song? When I was much younger, references to “Montgomery Ward” always sounded liked “Mockery Reward” and I thought that “Ann Jillian” was an actress who had only a first name (like Vera-Ellen or Rose Marie) - “Angelian” (like an angel?). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/2 "2019-03-01T02:44:05Z")
When I was a kid, I heard that pneumonia was a horrible disease. I also heard about scrubbing floors with an ammonia-based cleaner. And I thought that was one thing, which I thought was _awesome_. Oh, is some filth on the floor a problem? Then just pour this _liquid illness_ on it for the win. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/3 "2019-03-01T03:57:06Z")
My cousins used to call asparagus “parrot grass,” because that’s how they heard it. They also thought that when they said “Corpus Christi” at Mass, they were saying “Salt is crispy.”😃 ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/4 "2019-03-01T13:42:21Z")
How many kids in Boston drove over “Mr. Crivers’ Bridge?” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/5 "2019-03-01T13:49:59Z")
How about a visual mondegreen? You know how on the back of the penny it shows the Lincoln Memorial? And if you look really really closely, you can see the terrifying floating octopus inside the building? My older sister explained to me that it was a statue of the seated Lincoln, but I didn’t believe her. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/6 "2019-03-01T15:35:30Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > How about a visual mondegreen? You know how on the back of the penny it shows the Lincoln Memorial? And if you look really really closely, you can see the terrifying floating octopus inside the building? > > My older sister explained to me that it was a statue of the seated Lincoln, but I didn’t believe her. I was older than I should have been when I learned there was an image of Lincoln on the back - I didn’t even find it myself, I think someone here told me- but now I see the octopus! As a kid you must have thought that was so freakin’ weird. ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/7 "2019-03-01T19:24:23Z")
“Dragon Drop” interface. (“Drag ‘n’ Drop”) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/8 "2019-03-01T22:09:19Z")
> [@jerseymule](#): > > “Dragon Drop” interface. (“Drag ‘n’ Drop”) That reminds me of this one from a Newsweek reporter in this article [In Quicken They Trust](https://www.newsweek.com/quicken-they-trust-188598) who quotes a fan of “Quicken” as saying “I’m hot-keen all over that program” - I quite sure that she said “I’m\* hot-keying\* all over that program” In Stephen Levy’s book “Hackers” he quotes a hacker as describing a programming challenge as being “the pawn’s ass” - but I’m reasonably sure that what was said was “the Pons Asinorum” [Pons asinorum - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pons_asinorum) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/9 "2019-03-01T22:21:44Z")
One of my college roommates was visited by his parents for the weekend. They took him out to a nicer restaurant for dinner, and they then proceeded to embarrass him when they ordered “a giraffe of wine.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/10 "2019-03-01T22:21:49Z")
“And to the republic for Richard Stans” in the US [Pledge of Allegiance](https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/magazine/100-years-new-york-times-language-may-27-1979-led-pigeons-flag.html). Anyway, I think we may be blurring the distinction between [a mondegreen and an eggcorn](https://grammarist.com/mondegreens/) here. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/11 "2019-03-01T22:24:25Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > When I was a kid, I heard that pneumonia was a horrible disease. > > I also heard about scrubbing floors with an ammonia-based cleaner. > > And I thought that was one thing, which I thought was _awesome_. Oh, is some filth on the floor a problem? Then just pour this _liquid illness_ on it for the win. I’m totally with you – as a kid, I though that “pneumonia” and “ammonia” were the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/12 "2019-03-01T22:36:42Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > One of my college roommates was visited by his parents for the weekend. They took him out to a nicer restaurant for dinner, and they then proceeded to embarrass him when they ordered “a giraffe of wine.” And a latrine of soup. “Soup or salad?” “No, just a regular one.” ---
**Author:** ![uncle\_squeegee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b5e925/32.png) [@uncle\_squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uncle_squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/13 "2019-03-01T23:45:39Z")
A restaurant I used to frequent was called The Maple Leaf Grill. Once, when I mentioned it to a friend, she thought I’d said The Make-Believe Girl. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/14 "2019-03-02T00:44:14Z")
It’s a doggy-dog world. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/15 "2019-03-02T14:28:15Z")
I still get messed up on _symphony_ and _sympathy_. When I was in high school in 1985 a girl and I were talking about our favorite heavy metal bands. She said, “I really like the chick in Warlock.” I replied, “The Chicken Warlock? Never heard of them.” (She was referring to [Doro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doro_(musician)), apparently.) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/16 "2019-03-02T15:54:37Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I thought that “Ann Jillian” was an actress who had only a first name (like Vera-Ellen or Rose Marie) - “Angelian” (like an angel?). I spent a whole lot of time thinking that Pia Zadora only used her first initial and was P. Isadora. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/17 "2019-03-02T16:04:55Z")
Another one I still get messed up on… _melanoma_ and _melatonin_. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/18 "2019-03-03T01:39:15Z")
No, I don’t want to go skiing at thalidomide! Telluride? Sounds the same to me. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/19 "2019-03-03T16:51:12Z")
There is (said to be) a hockey team in Toronto called the Make Believes. Of course the well known Mares eat oats… One I like is in the form of a limerick: The reverend Henry Ward Beecher Said the chicken’s a most elegant creature A hen, hearing that Laid an egg in his hat And thus did the hen reward Beecher ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354/20 "2019-03-03T17:16:38Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > One of my college roommates was visited by his parents for the weekend. They took him out to a nicer restaurant for dinner, and they then proceeded to embarrass him when they ordered “a giraffe of wine.” Well obviously they wanted [this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Giraffe-piece-wine-Carafe-set/dp/B002GZKWBY). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-musical-mondegreens/830354.md?page=2)