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Provoked by current events, we've got three political eponyms for turmoiled times. Get ready for explosives, presidential pigs, Supreme Court scrapping, and wronged rhinos.
Content note: there is some description of torture about halfway through the episode.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
The 19 October 1959 edition of Life Magazine reports on Cacareco (it’s worth looking through the rest for the 1959 ads alone) (there’s also a piece about Nixon on the campaign trail).
“Zoological-linguistic note: White rhinos (Ceratotherium cimum) and black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) are really about the same color, namely gray. The ‘white’ rhino got its name because it has a ‘wide; mouth for eating grass, pronounced, in Dutch and Afrikaans, like English ‘white’, while the ‘black’ one has a sort of pointed upper lip for nibbling the shrubbery. In other words, the black rhino is only called such because it is not ‘white’.”
RIP Mayor Max II. Welcome Mayor Max III.
“Bork presented his positions, controversial as they were on the substance, in a gruff and standoffish manner, lecturing rather than having a conversation. White House staff tried to get Bork to change, but he couldn’t hide his disdain for the process.”
"Republicans nominated this brilliant guy to move the law in this dramatically more conservative direction. Liberal groups turned around and blocked him precisely because of those views. Their fight legitimized scorched-earth ideological wars over nominations at the Supreme Court, and to this day both sides remain completely convinced they were right. The upshot is that we have this ridiculous system now where nominees shut up and don't say anything that might signal what they really think."
“‘What [bork] means is to be attacked with a series of -- not to put it too strongly -- a series of lies and mischaracterizations,’ Bork said. ‘And it is an effort at the politics of personal destruction.’”
To Swedes, the Swedish Chef sounds more Norwegian.
Pigasus, the pig who would(n’t) be president.
“The online practice of zueira, when applied to tragedy or failure, is a source of pride for many [in Brazil], and of consternation for others.”
The ‘guy’-related section of this episode was on the show before, in 2017; head to theallusionist.org/guy for lots of links to Guy Fawkes-related information.
Otherlusionists that are thematically relevant: protest via cakes in Argentina and newspaper recipes in Brazil; political etymologies like ‘poll’ and ‘ballot’ in Election Lexicon UK and US editions; about the pseudonym ‘Roe’; and loads of eponyms including political insults.
I wouldn’t have expected this theme to emerge in my work, but this is the third of my podcasts in which I have talked about animals being elected for office! It came up in Answer Me This! Episode 397 and Veronica Mars Investigations season 1 episode 15.
Go to theallusionist.org/donate to support the show and hang out in the Allusioverse
🦏
Go to theallusionist.org/donate to support the show and hang out in the Allusioverse 🦏
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
kype, noun: a hook formed on the lower jaw of adult male salmon and trout during the breeding season.
CREDITS:
This episode was written and produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The guests talking about Guy Fawkes are Roman Mars of 99% Invisible and historian Victoria Buckley, who, alas, died a few months after we spoke.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
