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Weekend


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March 5, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. "You hissed my mystery lecture," the professor once rebuked a student, adding disgustedly, "You have tasted two worms." Both lines eventually became classics. What was going on here, and who was the speaker?

    A. These are "Spoonerisms," letter or sound transpositions by the Reverend W.A. Spooner, Anglican priest and scholar of the early 20th century. When Spooner grew agitated by someone "missing a history lecture" and "wasting two terms," he inadvertently fired off the two classics. Presiding at a wedding with a reluctant bridegroom: "Son, it is now kisstomary to cuss the bride."


     
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