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Double does not mean two of one
Why...
Am I surrounded by nitwits who fail to understand the difference between twice and double? I recently drove 1,200 miles in a car race around Spain and this entailed my wife and I stopping every night in a different hotel... each booked with a double bed. However most of the time this meant I slept in the San Andreas Fault line as hotels seem to think a double bed is just two singles shoved together. It isn't. Their restaurants certainly know the difference in price between a magnum of champagne and two single bottles. On the other hand, a double burger is a double sized patty not two measly bits of beef the consistency and size of a beer coaster stacked one on top of the other.
...and another thing
Famously a TV commercial on Fairy Liquid got into hot water when they claimed their washing up liquid lasted twice as long, with one of their bottles standing against two others… but the voice over saying it lasted 50% longer. Doh!
Wrigley’s “Double your pleasure” was also pretty inane as there was no comparable. Double as nice as what? An evening with Sofia Vergara or a spoonful of Anthrax?
And why do we say, “Double U for ‘W” which is written as two Vs?
...and another thing
Twins are usually charming whereas someone who is double the normal size is less fun if they are crowbarred into a seat next to you on a plane.
And it’s two-time Olympic Gold medal winner not double.
This week’s blog is clearly twice as funny as normal and double the work to write.
So next time someone gets these two mixed up, be careful or I might punch you double in the stomach and watch you twice up.
Man is not truly one, but truly two’: duality in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
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