Chapter 1: Who is Susie Dent and what is her significance?
Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of No Such Things Are Fish, where we were joined by the lexicographical legend, that is Susie Dent. Now, for people in the UK, Susie needs absolutely no introduction. She is a bona fide national treasure. She has been on my TV, in my living room,
every tea time for as long as I can remember in her position as chief wordsmith on Channel 4's Countdown, as well, of course, as 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, the comedy show with Jimmy Carr. She has done so much other stuff. She's written loads and loads and loads of books. They're all fantastic. We have read most of them, I would say, in the QI office.
The best thing you can do, really, about Susie's books is to just go to your...
book repository of choice and ask them for susie dent books because every single one of them is an absolute banger and you will find so many facts in there she has also written some novels she's written one called guilty by definition which is out in the bookshops now and there is also another one upcoming called death writ large which i dare say you will be able to get on pre-order
Susie is also on tour right now. She is going around the UK telling people loads of facts and loads of amazing anecdotes about words. They're going to be absolutely fantastic shows, I'm certain about it. So if you live in the UK anywhere, then just go to the internet and search for Susie Dentour. You could go to nothird.co.uk, N-O-T-H-I-R-D.co.uk, but I've just tried it.
If you go to Google, search for Susie Dentour, you will find information there. One more thing to say, of course, is to remind you about Clubfish. Go to patreon.com slash clubfish to find out more about that. In the Plenty More Fish tier, you can hear more from Susie in our extra long episode. But there's so much more stuff on there. I'm not going to go into it all now.
We've said it enough times. There is stuff for free there. There is stuff for paid. It's supporting the podcast. We appreciate if you do it. We understand if you don't. Don't worry about it. The podcast, as we always say, will always be free. And speaking of said free podcast, it's time to get on with it. So no more to say apart from on with the podcast.
I'm going to take a bath. I'm going to take a bath.
Hello and welcome to another episode of No Such Thing as a Fish, a weekly podcast coming to you from the QI offices in Hoburn. My name is Dan Schreiber. I'm sitting here with Andrew Hunter-Murray, James Harkin and Susie Dent. And once again, we have gathered around the microphones with our four favorite facts from the last seven days. And in no particular order, here we go.
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Chapter 2: What is the story behind the phrase 'on your Todd'?
We we talked about this on the show. I don't think you were on that episode, Susie. And I think I got it from you. You wrote this extraordinary book, which is all about the current day slang that's being used by every different kind of group. All the shorthands. Yeah.
Yeah.
Who had the most?
Butchers were great.
Chapter 3: How did the Great Vowel Shift impact the English language?
Freemasons, as you would expect, had quite a few. Birders had loads. Paramedics, I mean, we all have them, only we're not tuning into other people's because we're so busy lobbying our own at others. I mean, cyclists.
Honestly, it would be very hard to say who had the most, but it might well be butchers in terms of sort of keeping it going as a deliberate sort of tribal thing where you exclude others.
And paramedics, I suppose it's useful if you're trying not to say, this person's, your arm's come off. They need to say to their colleague, this patient's arm has come off, but without alarming the patient.
Yes, exactly. Lots of euphemisms. And they also, a group of paramedics told me, which you will have heard, but whenever they were being told off by their bosses, they would just say, oh, there we are then. And there we are then is an acronym for exactly what they thought of the person telling them.
I'll be using that. There we are then.
But it's interesting you're talking about Todd being a socialite because so was Gordon Bennett, who was the son of a newspaper magnate. And he was a huge socialite. And that was why his name really stuck in the imagination. Yeah. And plus it's a handy sidestep for, you know, gore blimey.
He was big. I believe he sent Stanley out to find Livingstone. It was Gordon Bennett. And so many people just don't know that name. They just think it's an exclamation. But there was a Gordon Bennett.
There was a Jack the Lad. There was a smart Alec. We think that there was a Mickey Bliss who gave us Taking the Mickey. Taking the Mickey Bliss piss. Bob's your uncle? Bob's your uncle was Robert Balfour, who gave his nephew a job in government, even though he wasn't remotely suited for it.
I was looking up Jimmy Riddle. I wondered where that came from. I haven't heard that as a phrase. I was going for a Jimmy Riddle. Yes. I don't know if this is the origins of it, but I looked in the newspaper archives for the earliest mention. And in 1866, there was an American song called Jimmy Riddle. So it was communion men one and all and learn how to fiddle.
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Chapter 4: What role did audiobooks play in Victorian England?
I'm working on a short book of 1,000 of these.
Wow. Okay.
1,001. 1,001. Really epic. He's got the one. So, for example, you guys haven't heard this one yet. Oh, yeah. I've been torturing these two with these for a really long time. A long time, Susie. Recently, I found out about a New Zealand coffee company, which is called All Press Espresso. It's named after the co-creator, Michael All Press.
Yes.
Or French Park in Ireland, which is named after the French family. The Obel in Ohio, there's a place called the Carpool, which is named after Robert Carr, who was the president of the college.
Do you remember there was a town in America called Snowflake that was named after Mr. Snow and Mr. Flake? Exactly.
Yes. Exactly.
It's that kind of thing.
Is there a word? There is a word for this. I don't know if there is. I think you need to invent one. Thank you. And that can be the title of your book. Yeah. Nice. Have you got a title?
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