Classic Toys

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Classic Toys. Lego, Ludo, Sindy and Barbie, just how and why were these classic toys and games so named? A look at why the marketing men of our childhood, and our children’s childhood, chose these often quite puzzling names. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Scalextric is simply an abbreviation of ‘scale’ and ‘electrics’. Not only boys toys, for some 40 years ago I was beaten at this in a night club by none other than Anne Diamond. A couple of years ago I was on her radio show and, off the air, mentioned the evening which she actually remembered – although she didn’t remember me – anyway we did race.

Jenga is a Swahili word meaning ‘build’. (and yes, I do know this is Lego)

Sindy was made by Pedigree Dolls and Toys and first marketed in 1954 in direct opposition to Barbie. It was chosen from a street survey of little girls out of four names – sadly the other three are not known. However we do know the original spelling was Cindy, as the girl’s name is usually seen. This had to be changed because one cannot register a common name as a trademark. Ironically the popularity of the doll resulted in an increase in the number of young girls being named ‘Cindy’ but with the alternative spelling of ‘Sindy’.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Gunpowder Plot

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these presentations, continuing with the Gunpowder Plot. While the story of November 5th is retold year after year, what happened to his co-conspirators? As they flew from London and headed north to the Midlands, what became of them, who did they meet, and where did they eventually meet their end? In the hour there are a number of narratives, hear of betrayal, endurance, desperation, ghosts, and utter foolishness. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

It is November 1605 and for the last three days Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, Ambrose Rockwood, the Winter brothers and Kit and Jack Wright have managed to evade their pursuers. Lyttleton was a known sympathiser and so they headed there, seeking temporary sanctuary. Seventeenth century travel was hardly a leisurely journey on surfaced roads, this involved crossing miles of open country, woodland, marsh, fording streams and always evading population centres. The journey, along with November's inclement weather, had soaked through to their gunpowder, leaving them virtually unarmed should their pursuers, led by Robert Walsh, Sheriff of Worcester, overtake them. It may sound foolhardy in the extreme yet these were desperate men and, having reached Holbeche, they preceded to dry their gunpowder in front of an open fire. The inevitable explosion alerted the sheriff and his 200-strong body of men and they stormed the house. Inside chaos reigned, a couple of small fires were burning, smoke was filling the rooms, and several were injured including John Grant who had been blinded by the explosion.

As the two sides fought a confused battle Gideon Grove fled in panic. In truth the young groom was very unlikely to have been accused of anything and, had he stayed where he was, would have lived to tell the tale of the day the Gunpowder Plot conspirators were captured under his nose. However he feared for his safety and, quite understandably, he fled on horseback in the direction of Wombourne hotly pursued by the sheriff's men. Little more than half a mile into the chase the horse and his terrified young rider plunged into Himley Wood and almost instantly found themselves in a swamp and sinking fast. Closely behind were the sheriff's men, who dismounted and gathered around Gideon who called out and pleaded for their assistance. Their only response was a hail of musket balls which cut short the man's life.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

Time

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Time. It is found woven into our language and yet why do we use multiples of twelve for various time periods? Why have we not produced a metric clock? Learn the fascinating answers to these and other questions and discover why punctuality and the humble timepieces of yesterday and today have created more than a few funny stories. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Physicists will tell you time is relative – which basically means time is irrelevant other than to the immediate area. To see this we need to look at time on a universal scale. We hear of how this star and those galaxies are so many light years away, a light year is how far light travels in a year (fascinating, I hear you say.

But think of it. We see the Sun every day (well most days) but it is so far away we actually see it as it was 8 minutes ago, the nearest star is Proxima Centauri seen as it was four years ago (note they see us in 2022 and are thus still have no notion of Donald Trump’s second term). If either star vanished it would take 8 minutes (or four years depending on one’s relative position) for the lights to go out. Hence time is relative to the location of the individual.

And for the etymologist I must mention minute – and also minute (ie very small). These may be pronounced differently but the origins and indeed meanings are identical. A minute (sixty seconds) is a minute (small) part of an hour and comes from the Latin prima minuta ‘the first small part’

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.