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~ Monday, August 29, 2005
 
THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS

In the 18th and 19th century, a code was established whereby flowers and other plants represented emotions and social situations. Numbers, colours and types of plants could be interpreted by sender and receiver, often by complex decoding of an arrangement. For example, a certain selection of flowers might mean 'sorry, I was drunk and I do not love you, but we should remain friends' etc.

Here are some of the more unusual items:

African marigolds – vulgar minds
American cowslip – divine beauty
azalea – fragile passion
bachelor's buttons – celibacy
basil - hatred
belvedere – 'I declare against you'
blue flowered Greek valerian – rupture
branch of currants – 'you please all'
butterfly weed – 'let me go'
Cape jasmine – 'I'm too happy'
chickweed – rendezvous
currant - 'thy frown will kill me'
dandelion – rustic oracle
flower-of-an-hour – delicate beauty
gum cistus – 'I shall die tomorrow'
hawkweed – quicksightedness
hemlock – 'you will be my death'
ice plant – 'your looks freeze me'
Kennedia – mental beauty
lady's slipper – 'win me and wear me'
love-lies-bleeding – 'hopeless not heartless'
major convolvulus - ' extinguished hopes'
meadow saffron – 'my best days are past'
milkvetch – 'your presence softens my pains'
nettle tree - concert
oats – the witching soul of music
pansy – thoughts
pineapple – 'you are perfect'
purple hyacinth – 'please forgive me'
quamoclit – busybody
queen's rocket – 'you are the queen of coquettes'
ray grass – vice
snakesfoot - horror
spindle tree – 'your charms are engraven on my heart'
sweet allysum – worth beyond beauty
sweet scabious – widowhood
tiger flower – 'for once may pride befriend me'
unique rose – 'call me not beautiful'
water melon - bulkiness
whin - anger
white poppy – 'my antidote'
wild sorrel – 'wit ill-timed'
wolfsbane – misanthropy
yellow lily – 'I'm walking on air' or 'false and gay'

Source: various (note, there are various versions of this code)
~ Saturday, August 27, 2005
 
PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES

50 songs popular during World War One:

A Khaki Lad
All Of No Man's Land Is Ours
America Here's My Boy
And He'd Say Oo-La-La Wee-Wee
Beside a Belgian Water Tank
Bombed!
Don't Cry Frenchy, Don't Cry
Good-Bye, Good Luck, God Bless You
Goodbye Broadway, Hello France
Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here!
Have A Little Regiment of Your Own
Goodbye Broadway, Hello France
How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?)
I Ain't got Weary Yet!
I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier
I Don't Know Where I'm Going But I'm On My Way
I Want to Go Home
If I'm Not at the Roll-Call
I'd Feel at Home If They'd Let Me Join the Army
I'll Come Back to You When its All Over
It's A Long, Long Way to the USA and the Girl I Left Behind
It's A Long Long Way To Tipperary
Keep The Homefires Burning
Look At The Ears On Him
Mademoiselle From Armentieres
My Belgian Rose
My Choc'late Soldier Sammy Boy
Never Forget to Write Home
Oh Frenchy
Oh! How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning
Oui Oui Marie
Our Country's In It Now
Out In No Man's Land
Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag And Smile, Smile, Smile
Roses Of Picardy
Round Her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon
Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers
Song of the Officers' Torpedo Class
Soup Song
Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty
The Ragtime Soldier Man
The Worst Is Yet to Come
There'll Be A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
They'll Be Mighty Proud in Dixie of Their Old Black Joe
We're All Going Calling on the Kaiser
We're Going Over
When Pershing's Men Go Marching Into Picardy
When This Blinkin' War Is Over
When Yankee Doodle Learns to Parlez Vous Francais
Would You Rather Be A Colonel With An Eagle On Your Shoulder, Or A Private
With A Chicken On Your Knee?

Source: Big Bands Database
~ Saturday, August 20, 2005
 
TOO MUCH OF THAT SNOW WHITE

Some names for cocaine and crack cocaine:

C / she / cat's pee / foolish powder / gift-of-the-sun / raw / powder diamonds / sweet stuff / dream / star-spangled powder / gak / demolish / devil's dandruff / birdie powder / posh / applejacks / gutter glitter / schoolcraft / coke / caine / mayo / Roxanne / bouncing powder / chang / society high / hubbas / white horse / Bernie's gold dust / teeth / blizzard / Cecil / fish scales / swell-up / Serpico 21 / freeze / Henry VIII / cookies / C-game / big bloke / Inca message

chooly / mujer / pimp / heaven dust / scramble / 51 or 151 / pebbles / carnie / Wall Street / boulya / hunter / the movie star drug / cabello / icing / bonecrusher / jelly beans / bubble gum / combol / blow / frisky powder / caps / kokomo / perico / gravel / cloud nine / lines / French fries / her / chalk / ice / butter / press / bebe / groceries / base / number 3 / chippy / yeyo / tardust / stones / hotcakes / white girl / slab / foo foo dust / turkey / California cornflakes / quill

schmeck / showbiz sherbet / baseball / Corrine / candy cane / Niki Lauda / burnese / jimbo / piles / devil smoke / duct / kangaroo / snuff / green gold / billie hoke / happy trails / caviar / paradise / bad / Bolivian marching powder / sleet / snowcones / love affair / Kryptonite / glad stuff / Carrie nation / nuggets / snort / rocks of hell / Peruvian lady / Big Daddy / chewies / bracket / Aunt Nora / yahoo / hooter / blue / beemers / nose candy / scruples / pearl / yale

Scottie / weasel dust / crackers / ready rock / hail / tension / regular P / famous dimes / scorpion / Charlie / sightball / hard line / gin / the all-American drug / love / Angie / bazooka / climax / double bubble / rooster / white sugar / Baby T / homer / girlfriend / wave / Florida snow / cola / flake / pee-wee / issues / yea / casca / wrecking crew / mojo / egg / tissue / incentive / white mosquito / lady / beautiful boulders / Bill Blass / white tornado / square time Bob / golf ball / coconut / ultimate

source: various
~ Tuesday, August 16, 2005
 
The latest VitQ quiz is on strange words and their origins. It's hard but you'll learn some charming and useless nonsense. You need to enter an email address to get the scoreboard, otherwise enter xx@yy.com or whatever.

Quiz is here
~ Sunday, August 14, 2005
 
WELCOME Y'ALL

... to Vitamin Q, a blog run by South London-based poet and puzzle writer Roddy Lumsden. Each week I post a few lists and other items related to the foibles of language and other trivia. Comments, suggestions or corrections are always welcome via the email above. The 350 page book version, containing lots of original material, is available via the link at the top left, or at Amazon, here (UK, Europe) or here (US - now available at last!!).
 
SPIN CYCLE

Spin-off series from UK / US comedy / drama TV programmes:

Happy Days (Joanie Loves Chachi / Mork and Mindy / Laverne and Shirley)
Friends (Joey)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Rhoda / Lou Grant / Phyllis)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Angel)
Tha Man From UNCLE (The Girl From UNCLE)
Casualty (Holby City)
Law and Order (Trial By Jury)
No Hiding Place (Echo Four Two)
The Six Million Dollar Man (The Bionic Woman)
Porridge (Going Straight)
Dynasty (The Colbys / Falcon Crest)
Another World (Somerset, aka This Is Somerset)*
Cheyenne (Bronco)
Soap (Benson / Mary Hartman)
Coronation Street (Pardon the Expression)
The Dukes of Hazzard (Enos)
Bewitched (Tabitha)
Cheers (Frasier / The Tortellis)
Upstairs Downstairs (Thomas and Sarah)
Danger Man (Secret Agent / The Prisoner)
Heartbeat (The Royal)
The Andy Griffith Show (Gomer Pyle, USMC / Mayberry RFD)
Diff'rent Strokes (Hello Larry / The Facts of Life)
Cannon (Barnaby Jones)
Sanford and Son (Grady / The Sanford Arms)
Man About the House (Robin's Nest / George and Mildred)**
Babylon 5 (Crusade)
Trackdown (Wanted, Dead or Alive)
Phoenix Nights (Max and Paddy)
The Bill (MIT / Burnside)
Star Trek (The Next Generation / Deep Space Nine / Voyager / Enterprise)
Golden Girls (The Golden Palace / Empty Nest)
All In The Family (Maude / The Jeffersons / Gloria / Archie Bunker's Place)
M*A*S*H. (AfterM*A*S*H / Trapper John MD)
The Cosby Show (A Different World)
Home Improvement (Buddies)
Please Sir! (The Fenn Street Gang)
Beavis and Butthead (Daria)
Dallas (Knots Landing)

*The first soap opera spin-off (c1970)
**The US version of this show Three's Company had a spin-off called The Ropers, in which the Ropers were called Stanley and Helen, not George and Mildred)

Two spin-offs which thankfully didn't happen: K9 and Company (Doctor Who) and a series with Manuel from Fawlty Towers
~ Wednesday, August 10, 2005
 
SIZISTZOO

Largest and smallest creatures:

world's largest moth - Atlas moth
world's largest reptile – leatherback turtle
world's smallest insect – fairy fly (a tiny wasp)
world's largest mammal – blue whale
world's largest spider – bird-eating spider
world's smallest reptile – dwarf gecko
world's largest amphibian – giant salamander
world's largest land mammal (weight) – African elephant
world's largest fish – whale shark
world's smallest beetle – hairy winged beetle (trichopteragidae)
world's smallest primate – Philippine tarsier or pygmy mouse lemur
world's largest land mammal (height) – giraffe
world's largest insect (length) – Malayan stick insect (phobaeticus serratipes)
world's smallest bird – bee hummingbird
world's largest rodent - capybara
world's smallest fish – stout infantfish
world's largest butterfly - Queen Alexandra's birdwing
world's largest mollusc – giant squid
world's largest bird – North African ostrich
world's smallest rodent – pygmy gerboa
world's smallest butterfly - Sinai baton blue
world's largest crustacean – Japanese spider crab
world's largest primate – mountain gorilla
world's smallest mammal – bumblebee bat
world's largest beetle – South American longhorn

Source: various; most of these are debatable, I imagine.
~ Tuesday, August 09, 2005
 
SLAM

Signature wrestling finishing moves:

Crippler Crossface - Chris 'the Rabid Wolverine' Benoit
619 - Rey Mysterio
Pedigree - Triple H
The Last Ride - the Undertaker
Angle Slam - Kurt Angle
Spineroonie - Booker T

and blasts from the past

The People's Elbow 'the most electrifying move in sport's entertainment!' -
the Rock
3D (Dudley Death Drop) - the Dudley Boyz
Stinkface - Rikishi
The Worm - Scotty 2 Hotty
Stunner - Stone Cold Steve Austin
Snow Plow - Al Snow

Thanks to TW for the list
~ Wednesday, August 03, 2005
 
TWIN TOWNS

Places which are said to be 'famous for two things':

Las Pinas (Philippines) - its Bamboo Organ, and the Sarao Jeepney Factory
Big Island (Hawaii) – deathplace of Captain Cook and the Kilauea volcano
St Andrews (Scotland) - Prince William and golf
Kalgoorlie (Australia) – goldmining and its red light district
Bremen (Germany) – Becks beer and trams
Havelock (NZ) – mussels and Ernest Rutherford
Jerez (Spain) – horses and sherry
Paddington (London) - its station and its bear
Capo San Vito (Sicily) – white beach and couscous
Safi (Morocco) – pottery and sardines
Heimaey (Iceland) – 1973 volcanic eruption and the annual puffling rescue*
Nha Trang (Vietnam) - Banana Split 58 and Mama Hanh's Special Boat Trip
La Boca (Argentina) – Boca Juniors football team and tango shows
Manchester (England) – Manchester United and rain
Berkeley (USA) – LSD and UNIX
Calgary (Canada) – the oil industry and the annual Stampede
Calcutta (India) – the Black Hole and Mother Teresa
Turin (Italy) – Juventus and Fiat

*Pufflings (baby puffins) are prone to diving onto roads instead of into the sea and so locals rescue them each year and release them in safe places.

Source: Google
~ Monday, August 01, 2005
 
DIRECT YOUR PRAYERS TO...

Unlikely but true saintly patronages:

Patron saint of roller skating (St Lydwina of Schiedam)
Patron saint of whitewashers (St Totnan)
Patron saint of actresses (St Pelagia the Penitent)
Patron saint of warehouses (St Barbara)
Patron saint of Florentine cheese merchants (St Bartholomew)
Patron saint of geese (St Martin of Tours)
Patron saint of sleepwalkers (St Dymphna)
Patron saint of wool combers (St Blaise)
Patron saint of those who fear mice (St Gertrude of Nivelles)
Patron saint of swans (St Hugh of Lincoln)
Patron saint of hangover sufferers (St Vivian)
Patron saint of forgotten people (St Jeanne de Chantal)
Patron saint of soap boilers (St Florian)
Patron saint of jockeys (St Eligius)
Patron saint of field hands (St Isidore)
Patron saint of potholing (St Benedict)
Patron saint of tramps (St Edwin)
Patron saint of dysentery sufferers (St Lucy of Syracuse)
Patron saint of stuttering children (St Notkat Bulbulus)
Patron saint of comediennes (St Lawrence)
Patron saint of air hostesses (St Anthony of Padua)
Patron saint of bakers of holy wafers (St Honorius of Amiens)
Patron saint of happy death (St Ulric)
Patron saint of truss makers (St Foillan)
Patron saint of lighthouse keepers (St Dunstan)
Patron saint of souls in purgatory (St Odilo)
Patron saint of disappointing children (St Clotilde)
Patron saint of amputees (St Anthony the Abbot)
Patron saint of mad dogs (St Sithney)
Patron saint of those who fight communism (St Joseph)
Patron saint of second-hand clothes sellers (St Anne)
Patron saint of bartenders (St Amand)
Patron saint of dandruff sufferers (St Genesius of Arles)
Patron saint of Belgian air crews (St Therese of Lisieux)
Patron saint of carnies (St Julian the Hospitaller)
Patron saint of wax melters (St Bernard of Clairvaux)
Patron saint of purplers (St Maurice)
Patron saint of whales (St Brendan the Navigator)
Patron saint of dog fanciers (St Hubert of Liege)

Source: various

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