Kickoff

NPR asked why “In the United States, the game played almost exclusively with hands is called football and the game played almost exclusively with feet is called soccer.” Dan Courtemanche, spokesman of the Major League Soccer, answered that “the word goes back to the late 1800s. As schools in England set up the modern rules for football that version was called Association Football. Somehow, the -ssocia part of the word turned into socca, which turned into soccer.”
A query in the Online Etymological Dictionary yields an interesting detail. The suffix –er “is used to make jocular or familiar formations from common or proper names (soccer being one),” which suggests that this “jocular suffix” was attached to the syllable soc of the word association. That the word soccer was indeed used in a jocular way indicates a quote from the Westminster Gazette (1/7/1894), referring to “the rival attractions of ‘rugger’ and ‘socker’”(OED) and using quotation marks around both words to signal irony.
“So would Major League Soccer ever join the rest of world and call the game what makes perfect sense? ‘Never say never,’ said Courtemanche” (NPR).

On a footnote: As with “the 'whisky/whiskey' conundrum,” where “consistency with the rest of the drinking world outweighs internal consistency,” international consistency here suggests a shift from one foot to the other, using the foot to kick instead of to measure.

oil spell

(source: Christian Science Monitor 7/8/10)

Dashing!

Just like socks, dashes can come in singles and in pairs. And just like a single sock, a single dash is rather confounding, it being the harbinger of something surprising, an abrupt turn, a sudden digression, a mental leap.

If you need a suit, go to Men’s Wearhouse. If you need a bespoke suit — well, first a definition of bespeaking.

Alan Feuer slightly digresses to explain an essential term before he plunges into his subject — $ 5,000 suits.

"It means a garment has been made to your specifications, that it’s been spoken about,” said Bruce Cameron Clark, an Englishman in exile who for 15 years has indulged such speech at his custom suit shop — Bruce Cameron Clark, Bespoke Clothier — on Lexington Avenue and 71st Street. “A bespoke suit was created only for you. It has your name on it.”

A phrase that provides more information, an accessory of sorts, is slipped in between a pair of dashes instead of commas here to enhance clarity since the phrase — or rather the shop's name — itself already contains a comma.

In Mr. Clark’s case, those names have been impressively eclectic over the years… Sitting lankly in an armchair near the window, Mr. Clark recalled, “Elton John got married in one of my shirts” — it was a short-sleeved job, with white wing collars and a vertical stripe — “when he still thought he was straight.”

The pair of dashes here suits perfectly to set off the description of Elton John’s bespoke shirt. Appositive phrases, however, should – well, be phrases, not clauses. Thus, the writer should have omitted the two words “it was.”

Of course, the world has changed, sartorially speaking, since Mr. Clark arrived in New York in 1995, fresh from Savile Row and an apprenticeship with the legendary tailor Tommy Nutter (claim to fame: three of four Beatles wore Nutter suits on the cover of “Abbey Road”) — which perhaps is why Mr. Clark’s shop still seems so traditionally English.

An aside, a thought kind of socked away, is also preceded by a single dash. That Mr. Clark’s shop is so British is not an essential part of the main subject but the author's afterthought.

It is a small, bright, second-story parlor with hardwood floors, a full-length mirror and sample garments — a thorn-proof hunting jacket, for example — hanging from the walls. There is a cabinet case of fabrics: English cottons, Madras plaids. You would not be surprised to glance up from your reading copy of “A History of Men’s Fashion” to find a banker in a homburg — and behind him, Mick Jagger — at the door.

The pairs of dashes around “a thorn-proof hunting jacket, for example” and “and behind him,[sic!] Mick Jagger” provide the sheathing for a description and a parenthetical element respectively. The dashes emphasize the insertions, make them stand out more than a pair of commas would do.

This casual — ” he stopped before saying “scourge.” But, of course, he didn’t have to.

Feuer’s last dash shrouds a missing word. Similarly, a dash can stand for omitted letters, for example to disguise names or profanities (maybe somebody thinks that Mr. C— is a b— snob?). Note that no space is left between the remaining letter and the dash.

Cities on wheels

"As world leaders squabble over how to cut greenhouse gases, city hall is becoming the best hope for reducing heat-trapping emissions” because, as Bloomberg believes, “local officials can green-light eco-projects faster than national programs can be started.” Never mind that giving something the green light does not necessarily equal it's getting started soon. Everybody who once in a while walks around town knows that months can lie between a permission, for example, to fix a sideway (indicated by auspicious white marks sprayed around a crack) and the day it is indeed fixed.
According to Bloomberg, “From the freeways of Los Angeles to the canals of Amsterdam, cities are taking the lead in the fight to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.” Although Los Angeles's freeways and Amsterdam's canals are precariously dangling here, it is encouraging that from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, cities are taking the lead in the fight to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.
So, what’s going on in Los Angeles, the "city of freeways, smog, and -- bike lanes? That’s where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to take his town.” Where, precisely, is the Mayor trying to take LA? Despite the ambiguous phrasing, one can assume that he wants to change the city from one defined by freeways and smog to a city lined by bike paths. But is this really “one of the less likely transformations in the global effort to cut carbon output”? If it’s less likely, then it’s not very likely to happen. But maybe it’s the least expected transformation? Still, whether it is truly part of a global effort to reduce emissions is doubtful since Michelle Mowery, senior coordinator for the city’s bike program, admits that “We have to make a change. We can’t fit any more cars in.” Sounds far less eco-conscious, doesn’t it?
While L.A. officials may do some double-think here, Frank Jensen, Copenhagen’s lord mayor, doesn’t even make much sense when he says that “We have a responsibility to our citizens to reduce emissions because so much carbon dioxide comes from cities.” Cities by themselves do not produce emissions. Their citizens do.
In order to stipulate more eco-friendly habits, London is especially creative. Its “government is also making 6,000 bikes available for the public to rent from this summer.” That summer offers bikes for rent is probably only possible in London with its proverbially dreary weather. The London summer really needs to do some marketing - whatever it takes.
Amsterdam, known as a bike city, doesn’t need to entice anybody to bike around town, but it tries to convince its residents that by cutting back “power use at peak times, their electricity bills could fall by up to 40 percent.” Amsterdam's residents most certainly hope that those fallen bills will land in their mailboxes rather sooner than later.
Not to be outdone, New York offers “tax breaks for solar panels.” Evidently, in New York even solar panels have to pay a tax. Yet, (in the wake of healtcare reform?) the city scrapped the idea to “to charge a congestion fee for drivers.” What a relief.
Back in L.A., cycling chief Mowery knows that “Los Angeles isn’t New York, but we’re getting there.” On bike, one would hope, although 2,500 miles is quite a ride.