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05/19/2003 Entry: "More on the English language and Sporks"

Ok, so I play in this pick-up band. We call ourselves Spork. This is, in fact, the same band as Billy Rhythm and his Uptown Rhythm Kings. The difference is that the Rhythm Kings play jazz, and Spork is a party/rock/funk band. Anyway, we've just booked quite a few gigs here in the area. We're playing a local club one weekend a month for the summer. Anyway, I thought I'd make a little flyer to discuss the gigs. I want to call it the "Flinging the Gravy" tour. Clarke want's to call it the "Hold the Slaw" tour. So I was doing some info scoping on the net about Sporks, and found that some feel the spork is the decedent if the runcible spoon. Strange, I thought. The runcible spoon was, I thought a made up item by Edward Lear. The website says Lewis Carol "invented" the runcible spoon in his poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter." Carol uses neither word in his poem at all, much less together.) Lear uses it in his poem "The Owl and the Pussycat." This site also says is was coined by Lear, but this sitethis site says that the runcible spoon was part spoon, fork, and knife, and was made from animal horn.

I still think it was a fictitious utensil, invented by Lear.

Also interesting: Lewis Carol invented some nonsense words that have now made it into the proper English language, like "galumphing" and "chortle."

Posted by Maria @ 05/19/2003 09:03 PM EST

How about the "extra value" tour.

Posted by Jim @ 05/20/2003 07:31 PM EST