Way OT: A Pair of Fruits

[JAMES A. LANDAU Netscape. Just the Net You Need.]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:06:13 Zulu minus 5 Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
wrote:

I just happened to notice, on a story from Washington
in today's NY Times ("Bush Cool to States' Call for
Public Works Projects," on the lede US page) that that
newspaper has another fruity reporter in the capital.
The first, R.W. Apple, is, alas, no longer with us.
Robert Pear may have been there (in DC, and at the
Times) for a goodly while, but I just noticed the
biologic similarity in the names. What are the odds
of two similarly-based reporters being named after
(or the same as), say, vegetables?

Reply:

As the father of the bride in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” said, punning on the Greek translation of the name of his new son-in-law, “We are both fruits.”

I understand that the Pittsburgh Pirates once had pitchers named Moose, Lamb, and Veale.

Incidentally, does anyone outside the NY Times use the spelling "lede"?

OT: and then there was science-fiction writer H. L. Gold, who sometimes used the pen-name “Dudley Dell”.

OT: about “Hussein” Obama, doesn’t anybody remember that the late King Hussein of Jordan was an ally of the US?

Even further OT:  The Philadelphia Inquirer (I think last Sunday, my copy has since been recycled) had an article in which the writer mentioned Cesar Chavez and commented “Broadcasters: his name is pronounced say-CZAR not SEE-zar”.

Since Chavez was only briefly mentioned, I doubt the writer meant to imply that Chavez had a Caesar complex.  Perhaps he was being OT himself and wishing to point out that “czar”, like “Kaiser”, is derived from “Caesar”.


           James A. Landau
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