When I started computing as a wee lad on an Apple IIe, one of the first disks I played around with was a collection of Beagle Bros. software called Beagle Bag (oh wait — “Naked City” was supposed to return errors? I always thought the game was just broken). The Beagle Bros. were an active software company throughout the entire decade of the 80s and their software ranged from incredibly useful to silly and fun. I learned more about programming by digging into their code than I did from any book (except for maybe Apple Programming Secrets “They” Didnt Want You to Know).
And thanks to the Beagle Bros. I also learned about spoonerisms from the Name Game. A spoonerism simply takes two words and flipping corresponding (usually initial) consonants, vowels, etc. Thus, my name displayed as a spoonerism was Myan RacMichael. Hilarious! Maul PcAleer even better. Myan and Maul co-founded the Paily Ding, you know. Poor Rev. Spooner… had an entire term coined after him based on his constant speech errors. (More on the absent-minded professor.)
According to the Wikipedia article, there are also kniferisms and forkerisms involving switching of syllables. Way too complicated. And they weren’t named after reverends.
Posted in Childhood Memories, Just Plain Odd
Paul July 16, 2011, 8:40 pm
The Infocom game Nord & Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail of It – one of my favorite games ever – introduced me to spoonerisms. Nice try, MacMichael!
Also I’m sure that people would still pronounce my last name wrong. (“Pic-aleer?”)