I followed ruadh’s link and apparently I ripped this from Snopes.
“Jeb Bush” is as redundant as “ATM Machine”, since JEB is an acronym of his initials, John Ellis Bush.
sorry to spread urban legends about car names. My regrets.
I’d say Jeb Bush is redundant, but for other reasons!
You know, if I’m not still up at 3 AM, I’m not getting up, no matter what day it is. Besides, nowadays I’m usually up putting the presents out till 2 Christmas morning.
Now that you mention it, though, there’s something about the anticipation that’s almost better than the gift itself.
Wow, no wonder you’re a legend! You’re Santa, aren’t you? I’d like a complete set of Heinlein’s novels (except for Number of the Beast), a bunch of computer games, a copy of Ryder’s field theory book, world peace, and a pony. I’ve been very good this year, I promise!
Speaking as a Wendy, thanks for this cool column. I’d always thought my name was invented for Peter Pan, and it’s pretty damn cool to learn otherwise.
Kim – often short for Kimberly (which is from a surname)
As for Spanish use of “Matador”:
Matador – Killer, Slayer (no major negative connotations for most people, unless you hate bullfights, or are a Jain). A perfectly acceptable car name.
Asesino – Murderer, Assassin (negative, criminal connotations)
Now, now. As I tell my own children every year, Santa can’t possibly bring you ALL those things. There are other children in the world, you know, and if you get that many gifts, some of them will have to go without. I can swing either the copy of Ryder’s field theory book or ONE computer game, depending on the price. Santa’s budget is between $25 and $40 per child. You’re allowed to team up with a sibling if you want an expensive gift.
And if you get too greedy, I might just bring you a copy of Peter Pan. Or a Baby Names book.
INTERNETLEGEND
Now, now. As I tell my own children every year, Santa can’t possibly bring you ALL those things. There are other children in the world, you know, and if you get that many gifts, some of them will have to go without.
BREATHE EX
I Thought Santa Claus was magic, like he could do anything he wanted. They never told me he was on a tight budget. When I was a kid I thought he was just a cheap bastard!
I always thought the name Wendy came from the Wends, a Slavic people of eastern Germany who speak a language closely related to Polish. The name Wanda also comes from these people. There was a famous Polish harpsichordist named Wanda Landowska. Seemed to me that Wendy and Wanda were variant forms of each other.
Kipling’s “Kim” is a shortened form of the Irish name Kimball.
Wendy has nothing to do with the Wends. They call themselves Serbs (also known in English as Sorbs to avoid confusion with the good citizens of Belgrade).
Nope. If he granted every good child’s wish, we’d be knee-deep in ponies. Or in the inevitable consequences of pony ownership anyway.
BTW I’m also a Wendy, and I knew the name had been used prior to Peter Pan, but I was under the impression it was so uncommon Barrie had never heard of it and so in a sense he did “invent” it - he just wasn’t the first person to do so. The Staff Report doesn’t really change that impression.
This is kind of a minor point, but the couple sentences about the Chinese emperor “Wendi” aren’t quite applicable. In pinyin (the primary system for Romanizing Chinese Characters), “e” is pronounced as “uh”, like the “u” in “dumb”. So the emperor Wen Di’s name would be pronounced “Wun Dee”. That of course, isn’t taking into account the tones involved.
I know that last bit of the article was a joke anyway, but I just thought I’d set the record straight.
From the bibliography affixed to the page titled The History of the Name “Wendy” and reproduced in the Staff Report:
The Facts On File Dictionary of First Names, Leslie Dunkling and William Goshing
Actually, William’s surname is “Gosling”. See
http://www.pricefarmer.com/cgi-bin/farm?author=Gosling,+William
Hey Santa, is there any chance that you’re bringing me that software I’ve long dreamed of? You know, the product that’ll allow me access to any Web page for the purpose of correcting such obviously careless spelling errors?
By the time you’re old enough to ask for things like this, Santa expects you to quit freeloading and become a Helper.
Sorry, Daver914, you’re incorrect here.
“e” when before “n” is pronouced as a short “e” in English, so the staff report is correct. (When before “ng”, it is pronounced like an “o”, and it is pronounced “uh” when not followed by an ending consonant.
If we take the joke seriously, it’s worth pointing out that “Wendi”, in both cases, were posthumous titles (not names as such) given to these emperors; they were not called such while they were alive.
I once worked with a woman named ‘Windora’ and she went by Windy. All sorts of variations. And more being made all the time.
I don’t know what to say about that, except that the Chinese people I hear speaking every day pronounce “wen” (as in “qing wen” and “wen wenti”) as “wun” (similar to the English word “one”), and not “wen” to rhyme with English “ten”. These are all native speakers from various regions of China, so I have no reason to believe they’re not saying it correctly.
I know what you may be getting at here, in that there is certainly a sound difference between “wen” (short, pinched pinyin e), “feng” (flatter pinyin e), and “he” (first-tone, broad pinyin e), but none of those sounds is close to an English short ë as in “Wendy”.