VitaminQ - a temple of trivia lists and curious words
|
||
Email VitaminQ
RSS feed Vitamin Q: the book! |
~ 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 |