Next episode is the 200th, therefore this is the 199th. I raid the 66-page documents of ideas for episodes, that I have been keeping for nearly a decade, and present to you 199 ideas that I have not yet made into podcasts (except for this one).
Read moreAllusionist 105. F'ood
When is cheese not cheese, or crab not crab? When itās spelled cheez or krab or even chāeese or craābā¦ Novelty spellings for foods-that-arenāt-made-out-of-the-thing-they-sound-like-theyāre-made-out-of go back a pretty long way - ācheezā was THE cheese-like substance of the 1920s - but right now, with plant-based foods on the rise, weāre seeing more of them.
Branding consultant and name developer Nancy Friedman casts her expert glance over the apostrophes and deliberate misspellings on foodstuffs; and vegan restaurant owner Melanie Boudens recounts how, this summer, the words ācheddar cheeseā on her menu landed her in trouble.
Read moreAllusionist 81. Shark Week
What is the expression 'beyond the pale' on about? How do you express the absence of feeling? Does 'testify' have anything to do with testicles? Do avocados have anything to do with testicles? How does the phrase "It's all Greek to me" relate to food styling? Can you have a caper with capers? Are sharks misunderstood, etymologically and morally? And finally: where do allusions come from?
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