Etymology – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

The etymology and typology of “trash bean”

Kindly contributed by C, here’s a sign from the toilets of a restaurant in Jaén: Don’t though any papers into the water close. Use the trash bean. There is too much material here to deal with in one post, but we can report that modern forensic linguistics, combined with a couple of glasses of wine,…

Why I’m called Trevor

Or, rather, how my grandfather seems to have been named after a minor railway station.

An unusual case of risus sardonicus

Is Mr Barbecue Bunny’s sardonic grin pre- or post-mortem?

Drawing by <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Laguna'>Andrés (de) Laguna de Segovia</a> of a candidate for the Sardinian laughing plant in <a href='http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA250&id=l8I9qBq-PNYC'>a 1651 Valencian edition of Dioscorides</a>.

Ghit goes generic

The Danish-based trends site Ghits.dk is now using my most popular neologism (Google hit -> ghit) for both Google and Yahoo searches. (Dear Mr Larsen, any chance of a link back to the source of your inspiration? Kalebeul or FollowTheBaldie.com would do nicely!)

Pan di Spagna?

A Sicilian says it ain’t.

The universality of bu/bo/boo

The strange shrieks of theatrical monsters often don’t require translation.

The naming of El Picazo

Mr Muñoz Soliva postulates the participation of some peculiarly phurtive Phoenicians.

The war on arsematrons

After years of shilly-shallying, will France finally stand up to American fartpower?

Sausage sourcing as an index of international cultural and political orientation

The cases of Spain and Holland.

Much more than a dog: the excellent Frankfurt 2001 bar near the SEAT flats in <a href=

Barcelona's Zona Franca" title="Much more than a dog: the excellent Frankfurt 2001 bar near the SEAT flats in Barcelona's Zona Franca" />

Star Trek, the origins

Kalebeul’s investigation into Vosk and the Na’kuhl temporal conduit yields some surprising results.