It’s always bothered me that they named a brand of condoms after the ones who lost the Trojan War.
But I suppose calling them “Greeks” would have sent the wrong message. And only Classicist geeks would get “Akhaians”, “Danaians”, or “Argives”.
Not that kind!!
Don’t feel bad, I don’t get it either. Care to explain it?
Tools, like penises right?
Snap-On, like if you don’t have one of your own?
Is that what you meant by it being ‘funny’?
Kind like a Strap-On.
Yup, basically. It’s very juvenile, but I just NEVER got it.
Our tourguide in Greece always said “Troyan.” My little brother, after hearing this, was convinced that it was true for the longest time.
Shakespeare also used “Troyan:”*
“My good Lysander
I swear to thee
By Cupid’s strongest bow
By his best arrow with the golden head
By the simplicity of Venus’s doves
By that which knitteth souls and prospers love
And by that fire which burned the Carthage queen
When false Troyan under sail was seen
By all the vows that ever men have spoke
In number more than women ever spoke
At the time thou hast appointed me
Tomorrow, truly, shall I meet with thee.” ~Hermia, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene 1
*Note:This may not be exactly perfect wording, as I wrote this from memory, but it’s pretty close.
To stay on topic…
Before I really got into hockey, I didn’t know why the Montreal Canadiens were called the “Habs”. Whatever it meant, I suspected that was the reason why the team’s logo was an “H” inside a “C”.
Actually, I suspect a lot of casual hockey fans out there, especially those in the States, still don’t know what “Habs” means. Well, it stands for “habitants”, literally French for “inhabitants”, but more historically/traditionally, it refers to the French settlers who worked the land of the Montreal area.
As for the logo, I was wrong. The team’s official name was/is “Le Club de Hockey Canadien”. The “H” in the logo stood for “hockey”. Simple, n’est pas?
Anyhoo…
One of my favorite hockey team names is the Odessa Jackalopes! They played in the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) from 1997 to 2001, then moved to the Central Hockey League (CHL or CeHL).
I also like the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, also of the CeHL. (They used to be just the Shreveport Mudbugs, which rolls off the tongue a lot better, IMO. But “Mudbugs” is just a cool name.)
Some of the other CeHL team names are pretty bad, particularly the ones that take liberties with word spellings.
Anyhoo…
I also immediately though to the condoms, and clicked on this thread expecting to find references to “hiding your soldier” so he can "enter the gates’ or something 
Although it wasn’t trojans that were in the horse…
I thought Weird Earl was some guy who found very strange web pages…doh!
(We really need to quit this hijacking…)
FTR, “Bossier” is pronounced BOH-zher. It’s not terribly far from here.
For those who don’t know, a mudbug is a crawfish. Quite tasty, 'specially if you suck the heads.
Here’s one that my fiancee recently figured out…Fuzzy Navels.
We were at a comedy club, waiting for the show to start and I ordered a fuzzy navel, for those of you who don’t know it is orange juice and peach schnapps. Half way thru the drink, Crunchy Frog slaps his hand on the table and says
“Ohhhh…Fuzzy Navel! Peaches are fuzzy and navel oranges! Now I get it!” he was 30 at the time :eek:
Jeez, matt & Otto.
I was told never to put anything bigger than your elbow in there.
Now I find out not only that some folks put their actual elbows in there, but that there’s a purpose-made product available to make it easier.
Every day’s an education.
:smack:
It never occured to me to wonder why it was called Weird Earl’s until I read your post.
:smack: :smack:
WHOA!!! :smack: :smack:
Me too!
Me too. For some strange reason I watched the film a few months back and was shocked. I thought it was a kid’s film or something, and then the phrase “pussy wagon” brought me to a screeching halt.
IIRC, that happened fairly often in earlier English usage (IIRC Chaucer does the same in Troilus and Criseyde). I think both forms are derived from the Latin Troianus – the more common “Trojan” form probably comes from the use of i as a form of j (a practice that persisted, as I recall, into the seventeenth century). Some editors of Shakespeare modernize Troyan to Trojan and others don’t.
Here’s another forehead slapping moment for me and a demonstration of how sports obsessed I am during the summertime:
A couple years ago, the news of priests molesting children was all over the TV. I was sitting at home watching TV when a news teaser aired and the anchorman said, “Church officials will meet with cardinals this afternoon to discuss the problem of pedophile priests…”
My first thought was, “Why would church officials talk with the baseball team? Well, manager Tony LaRussa is Italian.”
It took about 5 minutes before it sunk in that the news was referring not to the St. Louis baseball Cardinals, but the cardinals in the other kind of red hats.