"Kubla Khan and Ollie"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Nov 23 04:16:37 UTC 2013


On Nov 22, 2013, at 11:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 11/22/2013 09:41 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> On Nov 22, 2013, at 8:45 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>> > I remember them, although distantly; but why is this an eggcorn?
>>
>> Well, maybe rather a malapropism.  I thought it was an eggcorn
>> because I was assuming that Francesa had a mental lexicon entry for
>> "Kubla Khan" and not for "Kukla (the clown)" or "Fran (Allison)",
>> but you're right in questioning my characterization, since Kubla
>> Khan doesn't rationalize or motivate the expression, unless you
>> assume he'd have make a good partner for a dragon (albeit a puppet dragon).
>
> Ollie (Oliver J.), a one-toothed dragon who would "roll on his back
> to be endearing", as a puppet of Kubla[i] Khan, who defeated on the
> battlefield several internal enemies and attempted or accomplished
> invasions of Japan, Vietnam, and Burma among other places?  No, a pussycat.
>
Well, he did use(d) to bite Kukla on the nose.  Same thing, mutatis mutandis.

LH

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