[Balin] George of the Humble

[BalinTheDwarf]

Earlier this year, a man named George Nicholson ("Nick") Street died in Alabama. Nick was born and raised in America and spent his life studying religion, spending 15 years as a Buddhist priest. Yet in the early 2000s, Nick was recognized by the British as having been venerated by the English church. How and why?

ROIMBT - I got this off Wikipedia but the story is missing a citation. For the sake of the puzzle I'm presenting it as legit.

[BitterLemonCurry]

Is another person with the same name relevant?

Did George live some time in the UK? Was he a Buddhist priest while in the UK?
Was he ever a member of the English Church? Is a term that is used only by the English Church relevant?

[GalFisk]

Was thera a mistake? Did he study the English church? Did he ever write something relevant? Did he write books?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Is another person with the same name relevant? No

Did George live some time in the UK? No Was he a Buddhist priest while in the UK? No
Was he ever a member of the English Church? No Is a term that is used only by the English Church relevant? No

Was there a mistake? Yes Did he study the English church? Presumably but irrel Did he ever write something relevant? No Did he write books? He wrote, but I don't know if he wrote books

[BitterLemonCurry]

Did his name get somehow into a list of people venerated by the English Church?
Get somehow below a caption "People venerated by the English church"?
Is a street named after one George Nicholson or Nick relevant? Is George's name relevant at all?

[Sundowner64]

Venerated as in being recognized as a saint? martyr? hero?
Was there some event in the 2000s that made the Brits think so?
And some other event that revealed the mistake?
Wikipedia relevant?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Did his name get somehow into a list of people venerated by the English Church? No
Get somehow below a caption "People venerated by the English church"? No
Is a street named after one George Nicholson or Nick relevant? No Is George's name relevant at all? Yes

Venerated as in being recognized as a saint? This martyr? hero?
Was there some event in the 2000s that made the Brits think so? No
And some other event that revealed the mistake? No
Wikipedia relevant? No

[BitterLemonCurry]

Was his last name abbreviated to „St.“?

[JenBurdoo1]

By "English Church" do you mean Anglican, Catholic or something else? Relevant?

Did a special event occur in the early 2000s that brought this about?

Is Saint George (of dragon fame) relevant?

Is George's Buddhism relevant?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Was his last name abbreviated to „St.“? No, but the abbreviation is very relevant

By "English Church" do you mean Anglican, Catholic <- This or something else? Relevant? Yes

Did a special event occur in the early 2000s that brought this about? No

Is Saint George (of dragon fame) relevant? Yes

Is George's Buddhism relevant? No

[GalFisk]

Was he mistaken for St. George? Was St. George the relevant person who was actually regocnized by the church?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Was he mistaken for St. George? No, but this is extremely OTRT Was St. George the relevant person who was actually recognized by the church? Yes

[trebor2]

Did he have anything in common with St. George? Such as a birthday? Other important date?

Is this the result of something George Street did? Does it matter how the British recognized him? Was it in the papers? Online? On TV? By the church?

Are any of George's travels relevant? Did he know any relevant people in Britain? Is it relevant how the British came to hear of him? Is this the result of a journalist or someone doing some research/reporting and mixing up the two people?

[Biograd1]

Is the fact that both "Saint" and "Street" can be abbreviated as "St." relevant? the fact that names are sometimes written with last name first? I'm imagining something like George Street being written last name first as "Street, George", then being abbreviated as "St., George", and finally the comma being mistakenly omitted so that it becomes "St. George". Is it anything like this?

[Sundowner64]

Was it there one occasion when he was "considered St George"? if so: British government institutions involved? a British company? other British organization? the UK public in general?
Did he relevantly submit documents? fill in a form? show his passport?
Did the parts of his name get mixed up? so he became, maybe, St George of Nicholson, Victoria?
Some St George's church in Nicholson Street relevant?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Did he have anything in common with St. George? No/Irrel Such as a birthday? Other important date?

Is this the result of something George Street did? No Does it matter how the British recognized him? Yes Was it in the papers? Online? This On TV? By the church?

Are any of George's travels relevant? No Did he know any relevant people in Britain? No Is it relevant how the British came to hear of him? Yes (possible FA) Is this the result of a journalist or someone doing some research/reporting and mixing up the two people? No

Is the fact that both "Saint" and "Street" can be abbreviated as "St." relevant? Yes the fact that names are sometimes written with last name first? Yope I'm imagining something like George Street being written last name first as "Street, George", then being abbreviated as "St., George", and finally the comma being mistakenly omitted so that it becomes "St. George". Is it anything like this? Very OTRT, but not this

Was it there one occasion when he was "considered St George"? I wouldn't say "occasion," but it was specific to one thing if so: British government institutions involved? a British company? This, No to rest other British organization? the UK public in general?
Did he relevantly submit documents? fill in a form? show his passport? None of these
Did the parts of his name get mixed up? OTRT but No so he became, maybe, St George of Nicholson, Victoria? No
Some St George's church in Nicholson Street relevant? No

[trebor2]

Jolly old Saint Nick relevant?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Jolly old Saint Nick relevant? No

[GalFisk]

Was the mistake by the company done by an individual human? A group? An automated system? Was the intention to only recognize the actual Saint George? To recognize a different living person than George Nicholson Street?

[Sundowner64]

Did George have business relations with this company? did he work for them? buy something from them? did they publish George's books in Britain?
Is a tv or radio show relevant? newspaper or magazine coverage of George's works and travels?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Was the mistake by the company done by an individual human? This A group? An automated system?
Was the intention to only recognize the actual Saint George? This To recognize a different living person than George Nicholson Street?

Did George have business relations with this company? did he work for them? buy something from them? No to all
did they publish George's books in Britain? Irrel
Is a tv or radio show relevant? No newspaper or magazine coverage of George's works and travels? No

[GalFisk]

Was he recognized in text? Pictures? Did someone try to find a picture of the saint and found a picture of George Street instead? Were search engine(s) involved?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Was he recognized in text? No, but text is involved Pictures? No Did someone try to find a picture of the saint and found a picture of George Street instead? No Were search engine(s) involved? No

[Sundowner64]

Was one of the texts he wrote relevant? did he submit an article to a British journal?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Was one of the texts he wrote relevant? No did he submit an article to a British journal? Irrel

[Sundowner64]

So, one person in a British company mistakenly recognized Mr Street as St George, the one of the Dragon?
Was he mistakenly recognized in a text? in a record, or data set of some sort? on a picture? in an article about Mr Street?
Is the company a newspaper? a publisher? a book dealer? anyone who has to do with texts?
Did Mr Street benefit from that? or was it rather, a disadvantage for him?

[BalinTheDwarf]

So, one person in a British company mistakenly recognized Mr Street as St George, the one of the Dragon? Right idea, but No
Was he mistakenly recognized in a text? Yes (but...) in a record, or data set of some sort? In a way (but...) on a picture? No in an article about Mr Street? No
Is the company a newspaper? a publisher? This a book dealer? anyone who has to do with texts?
Did Mr Street benefit from that? or was it rather, a disadvantage for him? Neither

[GalFisk]

Relevant what books they published? Was he recognized in a book? On a book cover? Did he write any books? If so, did they publish them?

[BalinTheDwarf]

Relevant what books they published? Yes Was he recognized in a book? Yes, but beware FA On a book cover? No
Did he write any books? Irrel If so, did they publish them? Irrel

[trebor2]

Did...someone recognize St. George as George N Street, then? They attributed something the saint did to George Street?

Just to get it out of my head, is Guinness World Records relevant? Is the book a religious work? Is it fiction? Non-fiction? Relevant what genre? Is the possible FA about the book that the book was a regular, printed book? Was it an ebook? Or some other digital-only copy? Was it an audiobook?

Don't tell me it was an audiobook that was read by AI, or a bad narrator, that confused the St. abbreviations. Was it?

[GalFisk]

That reminds me of the audio book of The Martian, which was revised because the narrator first read "ASCII" as "A-S-C-two" instead of "ask-ee".

[BalinTheDwarf]

Did...someone recognize St. George as George N Street, then? Yes They attributed something the saint did to George Street? Not "something the saint did," but Yes

Just to get it out of my head, is Guinness World Records relevant? No Is the book a religious work? No Is it fiction? Non-fiction? Yes Relevant what genre? Yes Is the possible FA about the book that the book was a regular, printed book? Correct Was it an ebook? Or some other digital-only copy? Yes Was it an audiobook? No, but it was read aloud...

Don't tell me it was an audiobook that was read by AI, or a bad narrator, that confused the St. abbreviations. Was it? Got it!

That reminds me of the audiobook of The Martian, which was revised because the narrator first read "ASCII" as "A-S-C-two" instead of "ask-ee." [b]Did not know that about the audiobook. Still have a physical CD copy of it as read by R.C. Bray; haven't listened to the Wil Wheaton reading yet but will give it a go at some point.

Anyhow:

****SPOILER****

To quote directly from Wikipedia, but recall this is uncited:

In the early 21st century, the online and CD-ROM editions of the Macmillan English Dictionary gave two different spoken readings of the headword for the entry "George, St. – the PATRON SAINT of England": the American reading was the correct "Saint George," but the British reading was "George Street." Presumably the British narrator had been given a list of words to read and the comma after "George" was either missing or overlooked.