speeches Archives

Bernie Sanders Gives Bank of America Speeches?

A misleading web rumor claimed Bernie Sanders gave the same sort of highly-compensated speeches to...

Was the Comic Strip ‘Peanuts’ Renamed ‘Radishes’ in Denmark?

Rumor: The 'Peanuts' comic strip was renamed 'Radishes' in some international newspapers because locals were...

U.N. Mistranslation

A tale of an embarrassing mistranslation at the United Nations.

Starion / Stallion Confusion

Was the Mitsubish Starion supposed to have been the 'Stallion'?

Osco Renaming

Were Osco drug stores changed back to the Sav-On name because 'asco' means 'disgust' in...

Pepsi Brings Back Ancestors

Was 'Come Alive With Pepsi' mistranslated in China as 'Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from...

Was the Name ‘Donkey Kong’ the Result of a Mistranslation?

There are barrels of explanations for the unusual name of the game that launched the...

Disgruntled Former Lexicographer

Disgruntled Random House employee sneaks unusual definition of 'mutton' into the publisher's 1999 dictionary.

Ma Sacrée Toux!

Did a misinterpretation of Napoleon's complaint about his cough result in the unintended slaying of...

Moomba

Did the name of Australia's annual Moomba festival come from a derogatory Aboriginal term?

Computer Mistranslation

Did early attempts at computer translation of human languages produce humorous results?

Casablanca and White House

During the Germans pass up a chance to kill FDR because they mistranslated the name...