Plimoth (sic): 1621

Factual Questions
1

Plimoth? What’s this Plimoth?

My nine-year-old brought home a test paper from school. He explained that his class had gone online and read a history of the pilgrims and the Mayflower et al, then printed out this test and completed it in class. There was a url at the top, followed by the header “Mayflower Voyage” and a list of (purportedly) pertinent facts, the first of which read:

  1. Plimouth 1621

Hm, ok. Must be a typo, right? Wrong. I went to the website http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/plimoth/index.htm only to find the word even more heinously misspelled as “Plimoth.” Not once or twice, but every single instance, graphics, hyperlinks, everything. Well, maybe I’m crazy, but I always thought it was spelled “Plymouth.” Maybe they changed the preferred spelling while I was smoking dope in high school and didn’t tell me, I thought… So I go look in the dictionary and cannot find this Plimoth place. Hm. Do a google search and BINGO! There it is. “The Plimoth Plantation.” Wait a minute. “Plimoth Rock”… is a beer brewed on this Plimoth Plantation? WTF? All the links are to this commercial enterprise. Of course, a search for “Plymouth Rock” got me the Pilgrim Memorial State Park of Massachusetts, etc.

Is it possible that “researchers” at Scholastic, the publishers of the wonderful I Spy children’s books and a vast array of educational software and materials actually mistake a commercialized spelling as the real one, then propagate the error throughout the publishing process? I seem to remember a big fight years ago over someone trying to use “Plymouth Rock” as a trademark or something, but the State of Mass (?) went to court to prevent… something. Anyone have the straight dope on that? Does it have anything to do with this Plimoth Plantation?

It is only out of a sense of hopeless dread of my own ignorance that I humbly ask thee, the teeming millions to set me right and tell me I’m crazy or stupid or both, and my child’s teacher and all the good folks at Scholastic are not nincompoops.

2

A rose by any other name,
Would smell the same.

When you live in a place like the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you’d think every effort would be made to simplify spelling. Tsk, tsk.

3

Plimoth Plantation is a historical recreation of the Plymouth colony (similar to Old Sturbridge Village or Williamsburg VA). People dress up in authentic costume and reenact life in that particular time for tourists.

The town of Plymouth was spelled “Plimoth” on occasion; people in the 17th century were not sticklers for consistent spelling. According to the Plimoth Plantation website ( http://www.plimoth.org)) ):

“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx

Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman

4

you ignorant jerk.

It’s actually:

"What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

“C’mon, it’s not even tomorrow yet…” - Rupert

If you need a graphic solution, http:\ alk.to\Piglet

5

That’s a bit harsh isn’t it, BRG? Of course, you seem to have a history of being abrasive, like you were here.
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003895.html

“A zebra does not change its spots.”
~Al Gore, 1992~

6

A rose by any other name,
Would smell the same.

You don’t like my poetry?

I feel so sad.

Mine rhymes.

Nanny, nanny, nanny

Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.

7

“you ignorant jerk”

Jeez, I always wondered what happened to Shana and Jack… now I know.

8

You ignorant jerk! It is actually
" Most ignorant of what he 's most assured,"
William Shakespeare. Measure for Measure.
or " Better to remain silent and be thought an ass,than to speak and remove all doubt," Little Richard or “Publius Syrus. 42 B. C.
·” Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage."

9

Sheesh.