Daily TWiP Archives
Something interesting has happened on (just about) every day of the year, and Daily TWiP provides the proof. An offshoot of my local events column The Week in Preview (affectionately known as TWiP), Daily TWiP was published April 2008-Aug. 2011 and is still giving readers reasons to celebrate.More in "Daily TWiP"
- Daily TWiP - Oct. 23: National Mole Day
- Daily TWiP - June 18: International Picnic Day
- Daily TWiP - June 30, 1859: The Great Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope
- Daily TWiP - Dec. 1, 1761: Famed wax sculptor Madame Tussaud born
- Daily TWiP - Dec. 4: National Cookie Day
- Daily TWiP - Oct. 8: National Fluffernutter Day
- Daily TWiP - Sept. 7, 1936: "Benjamin," the last thylacine, dies
- Daily TWiP - Nov. 12, 1933: First photograph of the Loch Ness Monster taken
- Daily TWiP - April 1, 1957: The BBC pulls off its infamous spaghetti tree hoax
- Daily TWiP - April 11, 1954: The most boring day of the 20th century
- Daily TWiP - May 3, 1978: The first spam email is sent
- Daily TWiP - Feb. 28, 1939: The non-word “dord” is discovered in Webster’s New International Dictionary
- Daily TWiP - March 3, 1931: "The Star-Spangled Banner," set to the tune of an English drinking song, becomes the U.S. national anthem
- Daily TWiP - May 16, 1777: The American with the most valuable autograph is fatally wounded in a duel
- Daily TWiP - May 25: Towel Day and Geek Pride Day
- Daily TWiP - June 30: National Ice Cream Soda Day
- Daily TWiP - July 22: Spoonerism Day
- Daily TWiP - Aug. 13: International Left-Handers' Day
- Daily TWiP - Aug. 23, 1784: The short-lived state of Franklin declares its independence from North Carolina
- Daily TWiP - Feb. 5, 1897: The Indiana General Assembly unanimously votes to change the value of pi
- Daily TWiP - March 10: International Day of Awesomeness and Chuck Norris' birthday
- Daily TWiP - Jan. 25: National Irish Coffee Day
- Daily TWiP - Nov. 30, 1954: Ann Hodges becomes the first person hit by a meteorite
- Daily TWiP - Oct. 6, 1582 does not happen in certain countries
- Daily TWiP - Sept. 17, 1859: Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor of the United States
- Daily TWiP - Sept. 30, 2004: First images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken
- Daily TWiP - Aug. 27, 1896: The shortest war in recorded history is fought
- Daily TWiP - July 30, 1419: Czechs chuck politicians (literally) during the First Defenestration of Prague
- Daily TWiP - July 21, 356 B.C.: Herostratus destroys one of the Seven Wonders of the World to ensure his own fame
- Daily TWiP - May 14: National Dance Like A Chicken Day
- Daily TWiP - Jan. 26, 2004: Dead whale unexpectedly explodes in Tainan, Taiwan
- Daily TWiP - Jan. 8, 1835: U.S. national debt hits zero for the first and only time
Daily TWiP – July 22: Spoonerism Day
Some academics are remembered for making great contributions to their fields of study or for their impressive oratorical style. The Rev. William Archibald Spooner, on the other hand, is remembered for wuddling his mords.
Born today (July 22) in 1844, Spooner was an ordained priest and a don at Oxford University whose brilliant mind regularly outpaced his tongue. He mixed up bits and pieces of his words so regularly that these little misspeaks were dubbed “spoonerisms” in his honor.
Students would attend his lectures and churchgoers his sermons hoping to hear one of his famous slip-ups. They were not disappointed. Spooner once berated a student who “hissed my mystery lecture,” adding that the lazy student had “tasted two worms,” and politely reseated a non-regular churchgoer before the sermon, telling him, “I believe you’re occupewing my pie. May I sew you to another sheet?”
Spooner was overall a good-humored man, but it was said that he didn’t appreciate being defined by his verbal eccentricities. “You haven’t come for my lecture,” he said to one group of eager attendees, “you just want to hear one of those … things.”
If you’d like to hear more spoonerisms, check out a few spoonerism fairy tales by Colonel Stoopnagle (the plom de nume of F. Chase Taylor), courtesy of FunWithWords.com. “Beeping Sleuty” and “Prinderella and the Cince” will gave you higgling in no time.
– Teresa Santoski
Originally published July 22, 2009.
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