The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe > Podcast Episodes
Episode #59
mindme:
--- Quote from: "slammermx" ---I lived in Montana where it's 40 below for over two weeks in a row and as far as I can remember nobody got deathly sick. But listening to my mother-in law you'd think just stepping out into a 70 degree night you're going to to get a fever and die. :?
No matter what I say she still thinks that cold weather equals getting sick. :wink:
--- End quote ---
My Korean friend with her three year old boy, she just bundles that kid against even the slightest draft. I point out to her when I was a child in Montreal we'd love more than to splash in icy slush water all night, without regard to time. We'd trudge back into the house no worse for wear.
It's not a Korean thing, of course, Many first time mothers are really paranoid these days about everything. Even kids toys are now made with antibiotic plastic or some such rot. My cousin, she would boil all the kids toys before they played with them.
I dunno, when did society start to stigmatize people for losing just one kid?
mindme:
--- Quote from: "JohnMaddox" ---
Does this linguistic quirk exist in other languages and cultures?
-John
--- End quote ---
In Korean it's "so gogi" (cow meat), "dweji gogi" (pig meat), "dak gogi" (chicken meat), and "mool gogi" (water meat... ie seafood). I'll give you two guesses which word is Korean for meat.
Oddly many English loan words are used on Korean menus these days. Dak gogi is now "chi kin" and "dweji gogi" seems to be "pong" (Korean has an R of sorts and a K but Koreans would go into brain lock up if you put them right after each other).
Pork: Middle English, from Old French porc, pig, from Latin.
I suspect menus have simply influenced our use of these terms.
rebecca:
--- Quote from: "azinyk" ---Some American beliefs equivalent to "fan death":
- You can catch a cold by being cold
- Eating cows or pigs is okay, but eating horses or dogs is disgusting
- Drugs are instantly addictive and invariably deadly
--- End quote ---
Well, not quite. The fan death issue is a classic example of an urban legend that has been passed along with an incredible amount of success. It doesn't stem out of any previously understood "wisdom," it's just a scary story with a slight hint of believability. Catching a cold by being cold could at worst be described as an old wives' tale. Eating one kind of animal as opposed to another is just a common characteristic of a particular culture -- it's hardly surprising or the stuff of myth to note that people tend to not eat the animals they feel a kinship with. The idea of drugs being instantly addictive and deadly is a general belief that may be held by a subset of people all over the world, and not a specific urban legend story.
A more accurate comparison to the fan death stories would be the "stealing the kidneys" legend, or any one of hundreds of e-mail forwards found on snopes.com.
slammermx:
In spanish beef is called "carne" which means flesh or meat. Beef sounds a million times better. Can you imagine the catch-phrase "Where's the Flesh or where's the meat" it sounds like a cheesy porno title. :shock:
JD:
I have that porn sir, and it is the least bit cheesey!
Superlative acting, I tells ya.
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