No Couch Potato!

[GaryKelly]

It’s amazing what a quasi non-governmental organisation will do to promote itself.

@The BBC

Farmers stew over ‘couch potato’

Farmers want “couch potato” removed from the dictionary because they believe the expression is damaging the vegetable’s image.
A campaign promoting use instead of “couch slouch” is being led by the British Potato Council, representing 4,000 growers and processors.

The council argues that potatoes are “inherently healthy”.

Protests are due on Monday outside dictionary publisher Oxford University Press and in Parliament Square, London.

“We are trying to get rid of the image that potatoes are bad for you,” said council head of marketing Kathryn Race.

“Of course it is not the Oxford English Dictionary’s fault but we want to use another term than ‘couch potato’ because potatoes are inherently healthy.”

The campaign is backed by dieticians who say the vegetable is low in fat and high in vitamin C, the council says.


Oxford English Dictionary definition of ‘couch potato’

The dictionary defines a couch potato as: “A person who spends leisure time passively or idly sitting around, especially watching television or video tapes.”

Chief editor John Simpson said: "When people blame words they are actually blaming the society that uses them.

“Dictionaries just reflect the words that society uses.”

Words were never removed from the 20-volume, 650,000-word main dictionary, but little-used ones could be taken out of the smaller dictionaries, Mr Simpson added.

The first recorded use of “couch potato” was in the Los Angeles Times in 1979 and it entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1993, he said.

Aha! So the term originated in LA, eh?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4108964.stm

[Flyingcursor]

I agree. Every sack of potatos I’ve gotten since 1993 has required hours of councilling before being eaten. Their image has been tarnished.

[lixnaw]

@Flyingcursor

I agree. Every sack of potatos I’ve gotten since 1993 has required hours of councilling before being eaten. Their image has been tarnished.

i can second that

they look nasty allright ,

I come from county Kerry
The land of eggs and bacon
And if you think I’ll eat your fish ‘n’ chips
Oh dear then you’re mistaken

[Martin_Milner]

I now wish to be known as a couch stick of celery with a dab of French dressing.

[MarkB]

I have to turn the stereo way up when I go to boil new potatoes, the screaming is something else! It’s the older potatoes with their eyes and everything that get me, that is why I usually peel them in the dark, so they can’t see what is coming. Can’t deal with all the angst!

MarkB

[emmline]

I can still recite the little saying from the miniature sign firmly plunked into the baked potatoes my sibs and I got at a Howard Johnson’s en route to grandma’s farm in Virginia.

“I’m an Idaho potato,
I’ve been rubbed, I’ve been tubbed, and I’ve been scrubbed.
I’m as clean as a whistle,
and a lot tastier.
Eat me skin and all!”

[dubhlinn]

" Oh the praties they are small over here,over here.
Oh the praties they are small over here.
The praties they are small but we eat them skin and all
'cause its better than f*** all over here, over here
It’s better than f*** all over here."

Translated from the Irish by Brendan Behan.

Slan,
D.

[jsluder]

I wonder if that bag of chips he’s eating is potato chips…

[dubhlinn]

Crisps sludester…they are called Crisps!!!

Slan,
D.

[jsluder]

@dubhlinn

Crisps sludester…they are called Crisps!!!

Tell that to the cartoonist.

Hmm… Perhaps it really is “chips”, as in cow chips. That would make sense; potatoes need fertilizer, after all.

[Jack]

I’m a couch tomato.

[djm]

I can’t believe the rising cost of grow lights!

djm