Tuesday, October 03, 2006

A New Jeopardy Category

The Language Log (see my links) has been chock-a-block full of discussions about whether Neil Armstrong said "...one giant leap for man" or "...one giant leap for a man," complete with spectrographs and letters from Armstrong's biographer.

But squeezed in among these discussions was this little gem. These are the kind of fun little mistakes that I like to find. The short of it is this: a tanker truck with the contradictory message "NON PORTABLE WATER" on the side.

Obviously, they meant "potable." But it got me wondering. The word "potable" might have disappeared from our vocabulary if not for Jeopardy and its recurring category, Potent Potables. I wonder whether they have used Potent Portables as a category. Or even Portent Portables. (Or Potent Potatoes?)

OK! All right! I'll go to bed!

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