Research v. Intuition

Pliny's research has been inconclusive. No one on Google or Wikipedia knows how the humbug got its name. Even the old fashioned boiled sweet manufacturers do not know. Humbugs simply are and have always been known as humbugs.

Therefore, I said to Pliny firmly, we should do away with research and think it out for ourselves.

You didn't get very far with that method yesterday, he said, frowning.

Yes, but now we haven't any alternative, I said. I suggest we put ourselves in the place of an 18th century sweetmaker who wants to make a brilliant new sweet to take the sweet-eating world by storm.

I see, said Pliny. Does he think of the name of the sweet first, or the sweet itself?

He thinks of the sweet first, and comes up with the name after he's seen what it looks like, I said.

Yes, that sounds right, said Pliny. That's what I would do.

Would you? So would I. And while we're on the subject, why is the sweetmaker a he?

Let us not get bogged down in gender issues, said Pliny. Let us think beyond that to the sweet-creating process.

Alright, and let us think beyond the sweet-creating process too, because we know the sweet turns out to be a humbug.

Point taken, said Pliny. Now what?

Now, the sweetmaker looks at the sweet she has created. It is short and tubular, twisted off at each end and features smart black and white stripes.

And is peppermint flavoured, adds Pliny. Or aniseed, as the case may be.

Yes, yes. But now she thinks. What shall I call this sweet? What does it most look like?

And she thinks it most looks like a humbug!

No, Pliny. Because a humbug doesn't at that time look like anything. It is merely a hoax, or jest, or a deception.

Wait, said Pliny. I have just remembered a story I read when I was doing my research. It was about Charles Darwin. Two young boys made up a beetle out of the parts of 3 different beetles and asked him to identify the new beetle. Darwin laughed and told them that it was a humbug.

Oh well done Pliny! I said. Perhaps the sweet maker could see into the future. They were making humbugs well before Charles Darwin's time.

But, said Pliny, Darwin was no humourist. It may have been quite commonplace, to identify strange beetles as humbugs.

I believe you may be on to something there, I said. Perhaps that was what she was thinking.

He, said Pliny.