[Eugene Volokh, November 21, 2005 at 12:19pm] Trackbacks
There's a Reason That We Put Breaks Between Words:

Check out whorepresents.com, expertsexchange.com, penisland.net, therapistfinder.com, and molestationnursery.com. Thanks to John Morris for finding these.

Jerry (mail):
I think penisland.net is a joke site, personally. Doesn't jive.
11.21.2005 1:41pm
Nick (www):
I think this is the internet eqivolent of that picture that it either the old lady or the young lady depending on how you look at it.
11.21.2005 1:45pm
Nick (www):
Sean Connery: Alex, I'll take The Rapists for 500.
Alex Tribeck: That's therapists you idiot.
11.21.2005 1:46pm
MattJ (mail):
Time for a Emily Latella moment.
11.21.2005 1:53pm
Anon E Moose:
Well,

Seeing as how whorepresents.com deal with the entertainment industry, maybe it's not so far off?
11.21.2005 2:03pm
James Kabala (mail):
I believe Penisland.net is a joke at best and an out-and-out front for a spam operation at worst, for the following four reasons:
1. The names is odd. Pen ISLAND?
2. The service they promise - mailing tiny quantities of pens to people - is one for which there would seem to be a nonexistent demand.
3. They claim that they are all out of pens anyway.
4. They have a disclaimer saying that customers have been complaining about spam from them and claiming that this spam was not sent by them.
The other sites seem authentic.
11.21.2005 2:34pm
Tobias F.:
I was an Analyst and Therapist, The world's first...."..."
11.21.2005 2:42pm
Klaus from Oakton (mail):
How could you think that penisland is anything but authentic:

"Whether you're looking for a long and skinny pen, a thick pen, a fountain pen that squirts ink, or even a black pen, we have just the one for you."
11.21.2005 2:49pm
Ted Shepherd:
www.agedwards.com
11.21.2005 2:55pm
Mike Z (mail) (www):
ProgrammersHaveKnownForAbout20YearsHowToDealWithThis.

I seem to remember that word spacing was an invention that came sometime after the ancient Greeks. So how did they handle their tricky URLs?
11.21.2005 3:10pm
big dirigible (mail) (www):
Yes indeed, TheRapist is a problem predating URLs. It sure does look ... odd ... painted on a glass door.
11.21.2005 3:20pm
FXKLM:
I wonder if that site can help me find an analyst/therapist. Like an analrapist maybe.
11.21.2005 3:40pm
Tobias F.:
FXKLM-

And yes, I was the world's first!
11.21.2005 3:59pm
Anthony (mail):
expertsexchange.com appears to be a placeholder from a hosting service. According to the Snopes page quoted above, they've changed their URL to experts-exchange.com.

And how could anyone forget the Italian battery company, powergenitalia.com ?
11.21.2005 4:16pm
Jackal (mail):
Is this type of thing unique to English? Most other languages are phonetic. In a phonetic spelling system, the pronunciation of "The Rapist" would be the same as "Therapist," since the A wouldn't change from long to short based on its position.
11.21.2005 4:33pm
Edward Lee (www):
Apparently the Mole Station River Nursery read this post and quickly purchased the domain name molerivernursery.com.
11.21.2005 4:51pm
jurisprude:
I've gotta wonder how Eugene came across these sites...
11.21.2005 6:10pm
Jay Tea (mail) (www):
And who can forget the recent Italian power utility Powergen Italia, who were briefly online at www.powergenitalia.com?

J.
11.21.2005 6:31pm
ronbo (mail):
ferraripartsexchange.com

For men who want to become Italian women.
11.21.2005 6:51pm
Chrisa798 (mail):
Don't thank John Morris—he didn't find them. They were from a story at either The Sun or The Guardian — one of those UK newspapers. For his part, Anthony stole powergenitalia from that story as well. Lame performancs by two of your readers/commenters.
11.21.2005 6:53pm
Dave Hardy (mail) (www):
Remember, you can't spell analyst without anal...
11.21.2005 7:23pm
Robert Schwartz (mail):
the pronunciation of "The Rapist" would be the same as "Therapist," since the A wouldn't change from long to short based on its position.

The vowel is not the most important part. In English, the digraph th may be either voiced or unvoiced. In "the" it is voiced, in therapy it is un voiced.
11.21.2005 11:08pm
Anthony (mail):
I'm not sure where Robert Schwartz is from, because the change in stress on the 'a' from "The Rapist" to "Therapist" causes a change in the vowel sound, among everyone I've heard discuss that very old joke. The sound, and stress, of the vowel is more important than the voicing of the 'th'.

Powergen Italia now has their English language website at batterychargerpowerget.it . The old powergenitalia.com site appears to be some sort of intranet now, as it requires a windows-style logon which only works in IE.

Chrisa798 wasn't anal ytical enough - I did not attempt to claim credit for Powergenitalia.com, I just pointed it out.
11.22.2005 12:59pm
Harry:
Well, the mascot of my alma mater is the Red Foxes. CollegeSports.com hosts many college athletic web sites, using the GoMascot.com domains, or in this case, GoredFoxes.com. Not exactly the intent of GoRedFoxes.com
11.22.2005 8:28pm