Watching the World Series last week, Meg

Watching the World Series last week, Meg wondered, "why White/Red Sox and not Socks?" I knew that if we waited long enough, the Internet would come up with the answer. Bonus: the NY Yankees were once known as the Porchclimbers. Those rascals!

By Jason Kottke • Oct 28, 2005 at 07:28 am • baseball Boston Red Sox chicagowhitesox language New York Yankees sports worldseries

There are 6 reader comments

Kenny G • Oct 28 2005 • 1:07PM

Why not give credit where credit is due. Slate Explainer came up with the answer. Isn't saying
"the Intenet would come up with the answer" a bit like saying "the newspaper industry
would come up with the answer?"

shelley • Oct 28 2005 • 1:08PM

um did you by any chance read the more explainer story at the bottom.. yikes

http://slate.msn.com/id/2128921/?nav=navoa

Chris Ainslie • Oct 28 2005 • 1:15PM

I'd still love to hear an explanation of why the American people are taught to spell so differently from other English nations.

NOTE:
I said "differently", not necessarily "wrong". (Before the flaming starts) :)

kirkaracha • Oct 28 2005 • 3:23PM

You might want to start with this WikiPedia article on differences between American and British English.

Jack • Oct 28 2005 • 8:16PM

"I'd still love to hear an explanation of why the American people are taught to spell so differently from other English nations."

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that other English speaking nations were colonized by the Brits, wheras America was formed to rebel against British rule.

I like a lot of the Britishism out there--like 'proper' and such--but I think that retaining odd spellinds such as 'colour' and such are anachronistic and does not recognize the natural evolution of language.

Chris Ainslie • Oct 29 2005 • 6:51AM

"I like a lot of the Britishism out there--like 'proper' and such--but I think that retaining odd spellinds such as 'colour' and such are anachronistic and does not recognize the natural evolution of language."

I tend to agree with your sentiments there. We use "British English" here in South Africa, although I've taken so spelling some words (color) being one of them, the "American way", mostly because of my programming background.
I don't particularly like the "-ize" as a replacement for "-ise", but that's a personal thing.
The wikipedia article explains things to some degree, as does the comment about America being formed to rebel against Britain.
Still, it would be interesting to know the reasoning behind the changes.

This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.