Comments on: Lake Monsters Vs. Lock Monsters?

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:10:23 +0000

I’m going to go out on a limb and say Jabberwock is on the right track with his explanation of “Lock” coming from the locks of a dam (the little concrete rooms in a dam they bring your boat into to raise and lower the water level to get you from one side of a dam to another)

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 03:14:13 +0000

Remind me not to wander the vomitoria of Pittodrie…

By: purrlcat

purrlcat — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 03:06:41 +0000

How about the baseball team the DAYTON DRAGONS? I believe they are a farm team of the Cincinnati Reds.

By: sausage1

sausage1 — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:56:27 +0000

Hello from England,

Over here the football team Manchester United have the nickname ‘The Red Devils.’ There is a Welsh rugby team called the Dragons, and of course Brentford football team play at Griffin Park.

Also, in Scotland Aberdeen football club play at a stadium called ‘Pittodrie.’ This translates roughly from the Gaelic into ‘dunghill.’ Not crypto, but I just HAD to tell you.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 15:51:11 +0000

The Delerium tremens, now there’s a team name!

By: ZenBug

ZenBug — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 14:10:51 +0000

“Is blue less evil, and thus, more appropriate for a little league team?”

Good ask.
When I was a kid (about 20 years ago) I played for a hockey team called the Pownal Red Devils. Now my 10-year-old nephew plays for the same team and they’re still called that.

By: jayman

jayman — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 13:32:01 +0000

Going from “loch” to “lake” would be more of a translation. Most Americans are unaware of the correct pronunciation of “loch” with it’s throat-clearing sound, like German “ich” (I) and can’t do it right anyway, so it becomes the closest familiar thing in American English, “lock”. Maybe there is a connection with “lock and dam” too.
As for 5, my high school mascot was a blue devil and I often wondered about that too. My Webster’s gives a definition of “Blue Devils” as 1) delerium tremens - DTs - or 2) depression, the blues. Both seem odd for a sports team association!

By: Jabberwok

Jabberwok — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 13:20:19 +0000

Sasquatch is close when he asked if Lowell had a lock factory. Lowell was well known as an early American textile center (Hence the Lowell Spinners team name in the opening paragraph). Like most early factories it was powered by water. The locks were part of the early American transportation grid. They were used to get around the mini-waterfalls that powered the machines.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:35:13 +0000

Not a big sports fan here (By a long shot), but this does seem the apt place to ask the question- Have you noticed how many local teams are named the Blue Devils? And why blue, seeing as devils are traditionally depicted as red? Is blue less evil, and thus, more appropriate for a little league team?

By: sasquatch

sasquatch — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:31:11 +0000

I don’t get it, why are they called “Lock” Monsters? There seems to be no other explanation than mispelling. If it is an Americanization it would be spelled Lake. Wazzup? What did I miss? Is there a Lock making company in Lowell?