eggcorn alert: when misparsing becomes a fixture

[Laurence Horn]

From a recent blog 
(http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2006/08/16/beyonce_s_album_is_b_day_not_bidet):

=======================
Beyoncé's Album Is 'B'Day,' Not Bidet

Beyoncé Knowles wishes she'd thought twice about 
the title of her new solo album, after 
discovering B'Day sounds the same as a bathroom 
accessory. Knowles intended the name to be an 
abbreviation of birthday, but it ended up 
sounding like bidet.

She was alerted to the gaffe by BBC Radio 1 DJ 
Chris Moyles during an interview on his show. The 
stunned star says, "When I came up with the 
title, I wasn't thinking about a bidet. And if I 
had, I would have probably named it birthday, or 
just B."
=======================

Indeed, one reads elsewhere that "some have 
caustically renamed [this album] 'Bidet'" and 
puns on the topic do appear to be rife.

So, working backwards, how often do we find said 
(European) bathroom accessory referred to 
ingenuously as a "B'day" or a "b-day", i.e. as an 
actual eggcorn?  Not too often, it appears, but 
every now and then (as in an observation in a 
bathroom scene on an erotic web site "I noticed 
you do not have a B'day" or in this comment in an 
online review of the Seaview Country Club in 
Ibiza, "On entering the apartment they look very 
nice, all white walls and very clean. You have a 
lovely bathroom with bath, shower, large mirror, 
wash basin and fitted air dryer. The toilet is 
separated and quite small with a b-day"), 
sometimes leading to supercilious corrections.

Possibilities for confusion and/or exploitation 
are rife.  An accessory for the iCal program on 
Mac's System X allows (or permits, or enables) 
one to enter into one's electronic calendar such 
UK holidays as "the Queen's b-day".  At 
http://www.portabday.com/, Pacific Mint offers 
for sale "a portable bidet/Lotah for adults and 
children" under the name "Porta b-day".*

Complicating search procedures if not 
conversations, a B-day can be not only a birthday 
or a bathroom fixture but also a fishing license 
for expanding allowable catch quotas on Georges 
Bank, or a scheduling device used in public 
schools where A-days alternate with B-days, and 
no presents or plumbing devices are provided.

LH


*Porta b-day® is a portable bidet, a simple, 
economical, easy to understand, essential body 
appliance.  Porta b-day® is designed to meet all 
the requirements of a fast paced lifestyle.  It 
is the best choice for simple, effective personal 
hygiene.  Your mate with thank you."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org