Two questions of life-shattering non-importance.

[baratron]

I am typing this naked because I'm too hot after my shower. I usually wash in the morning because standing under a shower warms me up and wakes me up, but I felt far too smelly to leave it until then (especially as I'll probably get up 5 minutes before I have to leave for work). The reason for this smell is not general lack of hygiene, as you might suspect, but the cream that I've had to put on my sore elbow for the past few days. It has some sort of amine in, and after a while you really do get a nice rotting fish smell. Yum.

Anyway, Richard and I were cuddling for a couple of hours today and having the random sorts of conversation we have whilst cuddling. (For me, something I look for in a partner is the ability to have in-depth conversations about anything and nothing.) After discussing Current Affairs and The State of the World, we moved on to lighter topics. Such as:
me: What's the name of the plant that tea is made from?
R: Tea?
me: Yes, but every other sort of tea is called something tea. Like 'raspberry leaf tea'. What's tea - tea leaf tea?
R: Just tea.
me: So is the drink named after the plant or the plant named after the drink?

And:
me: This reminds me of the joke where the bear says "Do you find that shit sticks to your fur?" and the rabbit says "No", so the bear uses him to wipe his arse.
R: I thought the rabbit said "Yes", and so the bear says "Oh good", and uses him to wipe with.
me: It was definitely "no" in the version I was told, because the whole point is that the rabbit can get clean again easily.
R: I thought that the whole point was that the shit would stick to the rabbit's fur.
me: Hmmmm.

And so I present these questions for my readers' delight and delectation:
[Poll #28820]

Comments

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Our word tea comes from Dutch, which takes it from a Chinese dialect, and as far as I can make out from translated sources, it seems to have referred to the plant before it referred to the drink.

Since you asked for it...

[trinker.livejournal.com]

So the scientific name for the plant is Camellia sinensis, but that's a Western latinate botanical name for it. It used to be called Thea sinensis, but the naming of botanicals evidently has trends and fashions, too.

Part of the confusion about "is tea named for the drink or the plant" stems from the English muzziness about the distinction between teas and tisanes (herbal infusions). In French, "the" (insert the accent-aigu yourself, I'm too lazy to do it) means only "herbal infusion of the leaves of Camellia sinensis", and not "herbal infusion of anything". Those are "tisanes".

(English isn't the only language that does this. It's true in Japanese, as well. "Mugi-cha" (barley tea) doesn't have any Camellia sinensis in it. Just barley.

Rabbit and Bear

[adjectivemarcus.livejournal.com]

Would you buy non-stick toilet paper? Guaranteed not to get dirty?

The Rabbit has to say 'Yes' - the bear doesn't care how long it will or won't take the rabbit to get clean - he just wants the shit off his arse.

Re: Rabbit and Bear

[narenek.livejournal.com]

I am reminded of the odd semi transparent stuff that they used to have in school.

Re: Rabbit and Bear

[wandra.livejournal.com]

Tracing paper!

[Now Wash Your Hands]

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

The first place I heard the bear/rabbit joke was in one of Eddie Murphy's stand-up comedy videos (Raw?) in the mid-eighties (the ones that were "shockingly vulgar"). I'm pretty sure that in that video, the rabbit says 'No'.

Yes, I have a weird memory.

Tea and rabbits

[hiddenpaw.livejournal.com]

I always remeber in old books they talk about fruit teas as Infusions so one would guess the use of the word tea to reffer to them is some new trendy shinnanigans.

As for the bear and rabbit thing Bun-Bun says if any bears asked him that he'd just have knifed them for being so cheeky.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember hearing the joke phrased as "Do you have a problem with shit sticking to your fur?", which could be interpreted slightly differently I guess.

You genius!

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Aha! You have found the solution! I didn't think I was completely daft, but I definitely remembered the answer being "no". Yes - that was the way I first heard the joke too.

Well, that's solved then.