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What's in a Name?: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordinary People
A brilliant and personal literary journey, in which Philip Dodd tells the curious tales of people whose names--deliberately or by chance--became household words
What's in a name? For Philip Dodd, this question led to an international tour, sleuthing the history of some of our most intriguing eponyms. The result is a collection of surprising, stranger-than-fiction stories from history, the arts, the halls of science, and sometimes simply the realm of serendipity. This armchair traveler's delight contains little-known tales of such immortal figures
· Roy Jacuzzi, alive and well and still bubbling with ideas in Happy Valley, California
· Joseph P. Frisbie, the baker whose pie tins inspired Wham-O's ubiquitous flying disc
· Ernst Gräfenberg, for whom the G-spot was named
· Samuel Maverick, the Texas pioneer who refused to brand his calves
· And many other colorful figures
From Belgium to Buenos Aires, from Orlando to Los Angeles, Dodd's readers go along for the ride. What's in a Name? is a marvelous tribute to people who changed our language--whether through hard work, creativity, or the luck of the draw.
What's in a name? For Philip Dodd, this question led to an international tour, sleuthing the history of some of our most intriguing eponyms. The result is a collection of surprising, stranger-than-fiction stories from history, the arts, the halls of science, and sometimes simply the realm of serendipity. This armchair traveler's delight contains little-known tales of such immortal figures
· Roy Jacuzzi, alive and well and still bubbling with ideas in Happy Valley, California
· Joseph P. Frisbie, the baker whose pie tins inspired Wham-O's ubiquitous flying disc
· Ernst Gräfenberg, for whom the G-spot was named
· Samuel Maverick, the Texas pioneer who refused to brand his calves
· And many other colorful figures
From Belgium to Buenos Aires, from Orlando to Los Angeles, Dodd's readers go along for the ride. What's in a Name? is a marvelous tribute to people who changed our language--whether through hard work, creativity, or the luck of the draw.
272 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 1, 2013
Let me make one thing clear from the start. I am not a gardener by instinct. My thumb has not yet shown even a hint of green. But I am a great lover of gardens. I like to admire their visual effects and savor the calm of their space. Beneath the tower where Vita Sackville-West wrote I can wander for hours through the alleyways and controlled wilderness of the Sissinghurts Garden she creatd. In the grounds of the Four Seasons Hotel at Chinzan-so in Tokyo I discvered a garden of exquisite restfulness. And out on the bowspirit of the Getty Museum overlooking the spread of Los Angeles I found the arid minimalism of its cactus garden strangely and spikily alluring.
As always, it never ceases to amaze me when an author can take something fascinating, like how certain well-known items get their names, and make you want to kill yourself trying to find out.
AMAZING how one can make the very idea dreadful, dry, and SO BORING.
As always, it never ceases to amaze me when an author can take something fascinating, like how certain well-known items get their names, and make you want to kill yourself trying to find out.
AMAZING how one can make the very idea dreadful, dry, and SO BORING.
Want to read
April 2, 2012Like it so far. V interesting.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews