fildien
06-24-2005, 08:41 AM
(supposedly from Spiegel a German Newspaper)
It's very Douglas Adams'esqe.
Support Your Spud
The humble potato is suffering from a severe case of character assassination. Or at least that is the claim made by the British Potato Council. Yes, such an organization does exist -- and good job too, say potato farmers, because otherwise there would be no one to stick up for the much maligned tuber.
The council has just launched a campaign to defend the potato's image, which it says is suffering from a severe case of defamation. As yet there are no cases of libel involved, with vegetables taking the stand, but the British Potato Council is calling for the expression "couch potato" to be removed from the Oxford English Dictionary, and replaced with "couch slouch."
On June 20 the campaign kicked off with demonstrations outside the Houses of Parliament in London, and in front of the office of the Oxford University Press, with protestors shouting "couch potato out ... couch slouch in" and waving banners saying j"there is no such thing as a couch potato" -- which would mean that since 1979, when the expression first appeared in an article in the Los Angeles Times, we have all been using words that didn't actually exist.
According to the campaign's website, farmers are "fed up" with the "disservice the term does the potato, which as we know is a fantastic low fat energy source packed full of vitamins and minerals." It's doubtful whether the reputation of the potato as an unhealthy food though has much to do with the Oxford English Dictionary. Possibly more at fault is low-carb, post-Atkin's diat obsessed Britain.
The publishers of the dictionary have retorted that they have no power to remove a word from the English language as the OED simply describes society, rather than attempting to change it -- unlike, of course, those stringent guardians of the French language on the other side of the channel, L'Academie Francaise. (10:15 a.m. CET)
It's very Douglas Adams'esqe.
Support Your Spud
The humble potato is suffering from a severe case of character assassination. Or at least that is the claim made by the British Potato Council. Yes, such an organization does exist -- and good job too, say potato farmers, because otherwise there would be no one to stick up for the much maligned tuber.
The council has just launched a campaign to defend the potato's image, which it says is suffering from a severe case of defamation. As yet there are no cases of libel involved, with vegetables taking the stand, but the British Potato Council is calling for the expression "couch potato" to be removed from the Oxford English Dictionary, and replaced with "couch slouch."
On June 20 the campaign kicked off with demonstrations outside the Houses of Parliament in London, and in front of the office of the Oxford University Press, with protestors shouting "couch potato out ... couch slouch in" and waving banners saying j"there is no such thing as a couch potato" -- which would mean that since 1979, when the expression first appeared in an article in the Los Angeles Times, we have all been using words that didn't actually exist.
According to the campaign's website, farmers are "fed up" with the "disservice the term does the potato, which as we know is a fantastic low fat energy source packed full of vitamins and minerals." It's doubtful whether the reputation of the potato as an unhealthy food though has much to do with the Oxford English Dictionary. Possibly more at fault is low-carb, post-Atkin's diat obsessed Britain.
The publishers of the dictionary have retorted that they have no power to remove a word from the English language as the OED simply describes society, rather than attempting to change it -- unlike, of course, those stringent guardians of the French language on the other side of the channel, L'Academie Francaise. (10:15 a.m. CET)