Tuesday Trivia

Pandemonium

Meaning: wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos.

Origin: The word was invented by Milton in his 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost:

A solemn Councel forthwith to be held At Pandæmonium, the high Capital Of Satan and his Peers.

The syllable “Pan” means “all” in Greek, followed by “demon” and concluding with “ium”.

It therefore means the place of all demons.

The word “demonium”, meaning the abode of demons, or Hell, already existed.

Over time the word “pandemonium” came to refer to things akin to Hell and from there to the modern meaning of confusion, tumult, or uproar. 

For a truck driver to feel drowsy can result in death, so that substances and drinks are often used to energise. 

Thai salesman Chaleo Yoovidhya noticed that truck drivers in Thailand liked one of his company’s tonics so in 1976 he began producing his own version. He called the tonic, which contained concentrations of caffeine and other substaces, Krathiung Daeng, Thai for Red Water Buffalo. The logo showed two wild gaur, a bovine species, charging at each other. 

In 1982 Yoovidhya met Austrian toothpaste salesman Dietrich Mateschitz, who drank his product to ward off jet lag, and the two men formed a company in which each had 49%, the extra 2% going to Yoovidhya’s son. Mateschitz added fizz and a blue and silver can, plus he changed the name to Red Bull.

Within two decades Yoovidhya's drink was being sold around the world, with youngsters mixing it with vodka in the evenings, then drinking it neat the next morning to ward off the inevitable hangover. 

Yoovidhya became a billionaire but remained a recluse and died in 2012 aged 90.

As of January 2015, Mateschitz is estimated to be worth $10.7 billion. He is also reclusive. Despite owning two Formula 11 teams, he watches the races on TV.

“The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two."

The above is from the original Peter Pan book by J M Barrie. That 1906 book followed a successful 1904 stage production.

What “thins them out” means is open to conjecture and interpretation but many accept that Peter Pan kills the children who grow up. It gets worse. Peter also went on pirate hunts to kill pirates for fun, then sometimes in the middle of a battle would change sides and kill lost boys instead.

The lost boys were babies who had fallen out of their prams and hadn’t been claimed for 7 days, so some interpret the lost boys as already being dead.

Another interpretation is that the pirates, including Hook, are the lost boys who have grown up.  Either they escaped Peter or Peter thinned them out by sending them away, probably the former.

Not everything is cutsey Disney.

To come: the real Pinocchio, Snow White, Pied Piper, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.