Why skivvies is slang for underwear is a little unclear, however, it was originally considered nautical slang.  An earlier skivvy/skivey was also used in London as a slang word for a “female domestic servant.”

In Iran, “female domestic servant” is slang for “wife.”

Paronomasia is the fancy word for a pun.  A pun is intentional wordplay, unlike a malapropism (see yesterday’s post).  An eggcorn is in the same family as the pun and malapropism, but differs slightly from both.  One example of an eggcorn would be mistakenly saying “old-timers’ disease,” instead of “Alzheimer’s disease.” But unlike a malapropism where the new sentence is nonsensical, an eggcorn still makes a little sense, as is the case with Alzheimer’s… The linguistic example, of course.  Not the actual disease…

The MPAA (the Motion Picture Association of America) is the organization in charge of giving movies their ratings in the US.  G- and R-ratings have been in use since 1968, PG since 1972, PG-13 since 1984, and NC-17 since 1990.  Over time X-rated movies became synonymous with pornography, even though that wasn’t always the case.  For this reason, the MPAA adopted the NC-17 rating so it wouldn’t unjustly associate films with pornography.  Though nowadays, X-rated pretty much means pornography. 

I remember back in elementary school, when kids used to brag about their parents allowing them to watch PG-13 movies or even R-rated movies.  This one girl took things a little further by bragging that her dad let her watch X-rated movies.  She may have been cool in 4th grade.  But now I just feel creeped out.

Automaker Henry Ford was the only American mentioned in Hitler’s Mein Kampf.  Hitler admired many of Ford’s theories about auto-making and also some anti-semitic articles that were published under Ford’s name in a weekly newspaper The Dearborn Independent.  In 1924, Hitler even sent a representative to Ford’s house to ask him for a contribution to the Nazi movement.  Ford declined.  Once his anti-semitic views became more widely known, Ford retracted many of his statements.  In 1927, he issued a public apology, and history text books pretty much swept it all under the rug. 

On another note, Henry Ford was also a big proponent of hiring the handicapped (I sincerely hope it wasn’t an act of exploitation).  In 1919, more than 20% of  Ford’s employees had some form of disability.

That’s very respectable.  And also something you don’t really want to hear coming from your car company.

People steal street signs.  It’s what we do.  But it can be quite irresponsible. Each street sign in the United States generally costs between $100 and $500 to replace.  That doesn’t bother me so much.  As long as you don’t steal a stop sign or something like that.  In one particular instance, some doofus stole a stop sign, which eventually led to a fatal traffic accident.  The doofus was found guilty of manslaughter.  I feel like stealing stop signs is pretty dang stupid.  People should stick to just stealing “High Street” or “‘Whatever Your Girlfriend’s Name Is’ Street.”  There’s my PSA.

But, the reason I started thinking about this was because I passed an interesting sign today:  “CAUTION: DEAF PERSON IN AREA.”   I’ve seen similar signs, but never with such awkward wording.  The sign made it seem like a deaf person was going to sneak up behind me and break my neck or something.  They need to be more sensitive.  That way I won’t immediately think:  DEAF PEOPLE: SILENT KILLERS.

I need to be more sensitive, too.

Etymologically, “bulimia” comes from the Greek bous (meaning “ox”) and limos (meaning “hunger”).  One with bulimia is said to have the appetite of an ox. 

Wait… appetite of an ox?  Ohhhh, I get it.  People with bulimia have the desire to eat grass.