AS A prank in 1958, Matthew Dirckx tells us, a group of students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology used the body of Oliver Smoot, the shortest new recruit to their fraternity, to measure the length of a bridge across the Charles river connecting Boston to the MIT campus. The bridge was found to be 364.4 smoots long, plus or minus an ear.
The smoot markings are repainted each year by the fraternity and the story has become a well-loved piece of MIT folklore. When the bridge was reconstructed in 1989, the concrete pavements were scored at 1-smoot increments instead of the normal 6 feet.
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As befits someone who is a unit of measurement, Smoot went on to a distinguished career in the American National Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization. He returns to MIT on 4 October for a 50th anniversary celebration, which will include a clean-up of the river, the installation of a plaque on the bridge and a 1950s-style bash during which, according to , Smoot will be presented with an official unit of measurement: a smoot stick.
SOME unduly prim profanity filters are substituting 鈥渂utt鈥� for 鈥渁ss鈥� in texts, Dave Minter tells us, producing articles on the web about the 鈥淯N Buttembly鈥� and the like.
鈥淎 notice on the door of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Amersfoort, Holland, reads 鈥淢aandag is chicken dag鈥�, meaning 鈥淢onday is chicken day鈥�, says Jenny Narraway, who wonders what they serve on the other days of the week鈥�
We weren鈥檛 convinced, so we went to a famous web search engine and keyed in the word 鈥渂uttembly鈥�. It got 803 hits 鈥� and several of them seemed to be for entirely serious sites, like , where a learned historical discussion of laws on immigration into the US comes up with surprising statements like: 鈥淚n response to the terrible conditions, the United States government pbutted the Pbuttenger Act of 1847 and 1855鈥� and 鈥淚n 1854, the New York Legislature issued a 鈥楶rotest against the Suffering of Emigrant Pbuttengers'鈥�. It also talks of a 鈥淛oint Resolution of the New York buttembly and Senate, pbutted 6 January 1854鈥�.
We鈥檙e still puzzled, though. Something is going on here, undoubtedly. But is the word 鈥渂utt鈥� really such an improvement on 鈥渁ss鈥� that a net filter would make this substitution?
Further searches reveal several sites devoted to discussing what is apparently known as 鈥淭he Clbuttic Mistake鈥�. However, we鈥檙e still not sure whether the responsibility lies with programming errors, programming mischief, or Minter鈥檚 prim net filter. The fact that 鈥渃onsbreastution鈥� is found more than 6000 times by that famous web search engine suggests, we think, the latter.
WHILE investigating her Native American roots, Irene Inman Tj酶rve was skimming through 19th-century marriage records from Tennessee to see if any of the names flagged on the register as 鈥淐olored鈥� or 鈥淚ndian鈥�, reflecting the official paranoias of the place and time, rang any bells. She had to pause when she found , who on 8 November 1877 married Nellie Bigmeal. Surely, she thought, this must have been a match made in heaven.
It makes us wonder if Bob Hunger, who is a in the breadbasket of the US, has found a bride yet and, if so, what her last name is.
BOOKS giving advice on how to succeed in your profession generally work best when they practise what they preach, but sadly this is not always what happens. Michael Francis offers How to Advertise 鈥� what works, what doesn鈥檛, and why, by Kenneth Roman and Jane Maas, published by the UK鈥檚 Charterted Institute of Marketing. One of its key recommendations for getting the marketing message across is 鈥淕et to the point quickly鈥�. This recommendation appears on page 134 of the 194-page book.
HOW did a ray discovered in the western Indian Ocean acquire the name Electrolux addisoni? The discoverers of the species, Leonard Compagno and Phillip Heemstra, told the website of the : 鈥淭he name alludes to the well-developed electrogenic properties of this ray (collectors and photographers have experienced the shocking personality of this bold, active and brightly patterned electric ray first-hand), the discovery of which sheds light (Latin, lux) on the rich and poorly known fish diversity of the western Indian Ocean. And the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray that was taken by Stephania and Peter Lamberti may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets, furniture, and other dust-gathering surfaces in modern homes.鈥�
Compagno and Heemstra鈥檚 appears in the Smithiana Bulletin (vol 7, p 15).
FINALLY: wanna dinosaur? 鈥淭wenty amazing life-sized, robotic dinosaurs鈥� are on display at the in Sunrise, Florida. 鈥淥ur business model has a different concept and it is now time for these dinosaurs to go on a different direction,鈥� says an email hoping to peddle them. A lovely gift 鈥� but not for birthdays.