I’m not sure whether Professor

I’m not sure whether Professor Volokh’s brain is too full or not, but I think he’s kidding about the umlauts. I say this because 1) “motley crew” is an English phrase with a meaning that is reasonably appropriate for a metal band, but would mean nothing in German; 2) while I could pronounce “motley” with an umlaut, I don’t know how to say “crue” with an umlaut, and although I may be corrected by readers whose German is better than mine, I don’t think you would ever see a u with an umlaut followed by an e; and 3) I doubt that the members of the band, let alone any significant number of their fans, would have any idea how to pronounce the name with umlauts. Having just gone back and re-read the post, I think Volokh is poking fun at the band members for pretentiously adding umlauts to their name without knowing what they signified. They obviously intended for the name to be pronounced “Motley Crew.”

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