Author / EditorM

by EditorM

2. infected with measles, as an animal or its flesh.

There are some who object to shrimp scampi on the grounds that it is somewhat a translated-redundancy; based on

scampi

/ ˈskæm pi, ˈskɑm- /

noun,plural scam·pi.Italian Cooking.

  1. a large shrimp or prawn.

but then there is 2. a dish of shrimp or prawns grilled or sautéed in oil or butter and garlic, which is what we want shrimp scampi to mean.

by EditorM

Catch the reference — a twofer one deal

Here are two suggestions from Targuman, not very similar except that in both getting the joke depends on catching a cultural reference. Not entirely a geezerish enterprise, either — yes, both have roots in the sixties or before, but at least one is still in use in contemporary “intellectual properties”.

“Andy”?? How about Johnny and Henry? (Okay, yes, we know why. But strictly speaking it’s a mistake.)

So, some confusion between Nirvana and reincarnation / transmigration of souls?

by EditorM

Okay, so 1966 predates modern science!

Thanks to Usual John for suggesting this and providing useful discussion.

How does the mention of the dino’s penguin diet prompt that change of mind about imminent danger? Of extinction? I don’t understand.

Usual John adds “Incidentally, but presumably not germane to the joke, armored dinosaurs like this one were usually herbivorous. I’m not sure what kind it is supposed to be (Johnny Hart probably did not know either, but he likely was basing it on a picture or museum specimen he had seen). Maybe a stegoceras? Not the better-known stegosaurus, since there is no thagomizer.”

“Note that this would have been before the current understanding that birds are modern dinosaurs was widely accepted and also before it occurred to anyone that (non-avian) dinosaurs were killed off by an asteroid.”