Seems the humble potato is in the news a lot lately. A handful of farmers in England want "couch potato" omitted from the OED, because it hurts the image of their tuber. And that as well as a third of the EU budget!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1662240,00.html

Then there's a national scandal over here regarding the very popular 'Linda' potato. Its patent is running out and the firm that makes around €40 million a year in licensing fees wants to give the rights back to avoid it being made anymore after the patent end. Their new and obviously far more efficient spud is called 'Belana NN', which despite in keeping with the female naming convention doesn't compare to lovely Linda.

Potato farmers held a noisy protest outside Parliament today to get the term "couch potato" removed from the Oxford English dictionary, claiming it harms the vegetable's image.
As soon as I read this, I went straight to the bottom of the page to see if there was somewhere it said, "This story was a spoof; we just wanted to see if you were paying attention"; and couldn't find any such statement.

I find that I feel 50% "Hooray! People are really interested in words in a dictionary", and 50% "Oh, come on--a noisy protest???"

I didn't see any news stories about potato farmers here protesting the term. And why would anybody assign a human name to a potato type, anyway? "I'm going to eat some Linda": .

I didn't see any news stories about potato farmers here protesting the term.

Maybe they're not as brilliant at guerrilla marketing as this "handful" of english farmers is.

Consider how much free world-wide publicity for the nutritional benefits of the lowly potato this single theatrical protest generated.

This is Paris Hiltonomics applied to an ordinary food staple.

Brilliant! Simply, brilliant!

The French call the potato "apple of the earth" ["pomme de la terre"].

Now that's marketing!

I heard about this on the radio this morning, by. I didn't realize Brits use the word "couch" -- or has it come into currency because of the American slang expression?

As far as I know we right bankers have always used the word and we did discuss this back in April:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=145412

But meanwhile, from The On-Line Etymology Dictionary:

couch (v.)
c.1330, from O.Fr. colchier, from L. collocare "to lay," from com- "together" + locare "to place." Meaning "to put into words" is from 1529. Heraldic couchant is 1496, from Fr. prp.

couch (n.)
1340, from O.Fr. couche "a bed, lair," from coucher "to lie down," from L. collocare (see couch (v.)). Traditionally, a couch has the head end only raised, and only half a back; a sofa has both ends raised and a full back; a settee is like a sofa but may be without arms; an ottoman has neither back nor arms, nor has a divan, the distinctive feature of which is that it goes against a wall. Couch potato first recorded 1979. The first element in Couch-grass (1578) is a corruption of O.E. cwice (see quick).

Yeah, I think couch maybe getting ever more popular as its so international. "Settee potato" doesn't work anyway:-) Also, I suspect that the Brits don't eat *crisps on their settees as much as US enjoy their potato chips. Crisps seem to mainly be pub food in England - in the sitting room you'd probably go for a cup of tea and a biscuit before you'd reach for corn or potato chips. I think couch is a top verb, btw.

I'd have a little more sympathy for them if they'd chosen something other than 'couch slouch' as their replacement term. That 'chsl' consonant cluster is a little to much for anyone whose mother tongue isn't Russian.

> it hurts the image of their tuber

If they wanted to really reposition and go for an active yoof market too, they should run a campaign based on an animated tater who rages like a dragon when roused, and flies through the air in slo-mo kick-boxing manner... it could spin the passive 'couch' connotations through 180 degrees:

Crouch Potato, Hidden Dragon!

> If they wanted to really reposition

LOL! That reminds me of that Black Adder too where they've just brought back potatoes from the Americas and everyone who's hip is 'doing' them. S. Fry turns to Adder with a little case of 'em and goes:
"Potato?"
And he replies,
"No thanks, I don't"

As I recall, Sir Walter Raleigh wasn't entirely successful at the great potato tasting in "No Bed for Bacon".

Bingley