re: #333 Backwoods_Sleuth

To stop himself being made the butt of jokes, in 1862 a man named Joshua Bug changed his name to Norfolk Howard. After his story was reported in the press, however, people began using NORFOLK HOWARD as a slang name for a bedbug instead.

(Slang & Unconventional English, 1937) pic.twitter.com/1paRVJLdGt

— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) August 27, 2019

So, bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) will henceforth be known as “bret stephens.” In a hundred years they will be “bret bugs” or just “brets.”