Elvis Presley made us all swoon in the fifties, sixties and seventies when he swivelled his hips then vibrated his legs in time with the songs he was singing. His odd gyrations became one of his primary claims to fame. Do you have any idea which sport borrowed Elvis’ dance moves to become a descriptor for a condition associated with their pastime? Well it’s rock climbing. … [Read more...]
What is a liberator?
One might think that a liberator is an American World War II heavy bomber. Well it may be in the non-sporting world but in the sporting world it has nothing to do with big aeroplanes. A liberator, in the sporting world, is a critical character in the rarified world of pigeon racing! A sport? Okay, okay. I guess that pigeon racing is not a sport in the normal sense of the word … [Read more...]
What is a PUP list?
Could a PUP list be an assortment of baby doggies selected for a canine beauty pageant? Of course not. If the meaning of the word PUP was even remotely related to our furry friends, then it wouldn’t make it onto the Sportsocratic “What is it… ?” page. It's an acronym, of course As you might have guessed, PUP is an acronym. As we know, Americans love acronyms. American sports … [Read more...]
What is a kisser?
I doubt if even the most dedicated sports trivia freak would know what a kisser is. Yeah. I know. We could make jokes about Pepe Le Pew and his shenanigans. We could also make cracks about Errol Flynn and his favourite pastime though kissing might not be one hundred percent accurate in Errol’s case. There is a tenuous link between a kisser in the sporting sense and Errol … [Read more...]
What is an Adolph?
We all know that Adolph was a nasty bugger from the otherwise lovely city of Munich back in the the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s but what is an Adolph in a modern sporting context? King of "sport and politics" Funnily enough, the nasty Adolph despite his own physical ineptitude does have a number of lasting contributions to sport... some that could be regarded as borderline … [Read more...]