Just reading a web news article on the change at the top of golf's world rankings, I was surprised to see that the writer missed an opportunity. The article pointed out that Vijay Singh's first name means "victory" in Hindi, but missed the chance to play on the fact that Singh means "lion". Given the name of the player he deposed, I was surprised to see that chance for wordplay passed up.
Ah, but they're not native to the same continent.
Yes, vijaya is Sanskrit for 'victory' or 'contest for victory'; it's from vi 'apart' (possibley from dvi-) + verbal root ji (jayati 'to win, conquor, defeat') < PIE *gwey@- 'to overcome, overpower; force, sway', cf. Greek bia 'power, force', Old English cwìesan 'to bruise, smash', also English quench (with nasal infix).
>Not native to the same continent.
Maybe there are no African tigers, but there have long been Asian lions. IIRC, Biblical Hebrew actually uses two different words for lion, one referring specifically to the Asian lion.
And, since Tiger's play has become a bit of a headache for him, you could have had a headline referring to his taking aspirin for it:
Lions and Tigers and Bayers, Oh My.
Lions and Tigers and Bayers, Oh My. I love it.
How do you come up with these things? Does it just pop into your head when you read something?
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Max, I think the heading wouldn't have gone over so well since the writer would have had to explain it to everybody. It's like when you have to explain a joke...it loses its hilarity.
> It's like when you have to explain a joke...it loses its hilarity.
Indeed. Which is why I regret having to ask someone to explain TEd's "lions, tigers and Bayer's. Oh my" to me. I'm guessing it's a play on an advertising slogan for Bayer pharmaceuticals that I haven't seen before.
Which is why I regret having to ask someone to explain
I guess if you were from Oz and not Zild you wouldn't need splainin.