Public Toilets and Heads of State
As those of you who are reading along know, I recently learned that public toilets are called vespasianos in Italy, after the Roman emperor Vespasian, who introduced the concept to the empire. This led my brain to London bobbies, named after British Prime Minister Robert Peel, who founded the London police when he was Home Secretary. * Which made me wonder how many other words there are like this that refer back to a head of state. Not places, buildings, or institutions. Not names borrowed for marketing purposes, like a Lincoln town car or Prince Albert in a can. **
I wracked my brain. I Googled hard. The closest thing I came up with is the sandwich: the right kind of term, but you just can’t compare a dissipated English nobleman with a hard-working Roman emperor.
Tell me, Dear Readers, what am I missing?
*Rest assured, Dear Readers, I am NOT comparing policemen to public toilets. Though now that I think about, in both cases I’m glad to see one when I need one.
**Though Prince Albert was not technically a head of state.
Quizzing my daughter on history for her final I remarked at how many (ok, maybe two) of the people I read about had airports named after them.
No, it’s not the same thing. They weren’t heads of state nor are airports objects, but we’re going with “almost normal” on the blogs today, right?
Kaiser rolls were made by a Viennese baker to honor Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. His outline was pressed into the top. This was around the 1480s.
Cool!