I could talk about what little I saw of the President's address between working and reading to Eryn, but instead I'm just going to mention that in the parking lot today, on my way home, I realized as I was walking to my car that the vehicle next to mine was covered in bees (but was not actually a bee, like this picture on Flickr). Then I realized it was worse! They were wasps! My allergies to bees are questionable. I believe I was stung during Elroy Sparta a little over a week ago and survived. And many years ago I was stung by three at once and didn't exhibit even a bit of puffiness. But the last two times I was stung by a wasp involved softball sized swellings and giant baby-looking appendages where my wrist or ankle vanished under the swelling. A car covered in them, immediately next to mine, is problematic, particularly as my car was on the flight path and they kept bouncing off the windows and roof.
There's no great ending where I'm texting this to blogger as I lie swollen in the company lot. I managed to sneak in between wasps and then sat there, observing them feasting on what seemed to be sap all over the neighboring car. I'm going to have to watch for that when I park tomorrow morning.
In the spirit of yesterday's post, I offer the collective nouns for bees, because there are so many of them, at least according to Wiktionary. I find it interesting that the collective noun can vary based on whether the bees are wild or domesticated, around the queen, or a secondary group, or in flight vs. not-necessarily-in-flight.
You'd think I'd blog more. I went from Elroy-Sparta to the State Fair to Valley Fair, to friends on Saturday, to St. Peter on Sunday and Monday. That's a lot of out-and-about for such a short time. Eryn loved Valleyfair, although she and I didn't go on any of the biggest rides. She was content to ride the monster (octopus) and mad mouse (four person roller coaster) and see the magician and Imax. I was content to do those things as long as there was a ride between each of the octopus rides.
Addendum: I was just watching Zimmern's Bizarre foods, and he was at a restaurant in Beijing that serves only penis dishes. He referred to a variety of penises and I thought, "Hey, I wonder if that's the collective noun?" But elsewhere on the web people refer to a knob of penises and a gaggle of penises, both of which are much funnier.
Kyle was pondering the collective noun for iPod over at Facebook, which had me looking around for a good list. Wikipedia keeps an A-K list and an L-Z list while yourdictionary breaks out some of the groups of people related collective nouns, which are the most interesting, like a disworship of Scots. As for iPods, I suggested an iBiquity - as in a group of sparrows - but it appears the collective noun for USB sticks may be "pod", so a pod of iPods is perhaps most appropriate.
I think what I really learned is that Pooteewheet's previous job involved her working with an anthology of prostitutes. That would have been fun to know at the time.
Does everyone else know the definition of baize? I swear sometimes that the only reason I read Terry Pratchett books is so that I learn new words. He used the word baize in the phrase, "But genetics roll strange dice on the green baize of life..." (Carpe Jugulum, p. 15).
So I had to look it up, despite having a vague idea that it was related to the green felt on a craps table.
"An often bright-green cotton or woolen material napped to imitate felt and used chiefly as a cover for gaming tables."
"Tutor's tip: The Duke, with several "beys" (titles of respect), wore his "baize" (thick fabric) coat and stood outside listening to the "bays" (animal sounds)."
I was researching reasonably priced bottles of single malt Scotch, and in my explorations came across what the author of Maltmadness.com, an exceptionally wonderful Scotch resource, refers to as "my shitlist", an amusing assortment of dreck that includes an interesting list of quotations, among which my favorites were:
Daniel Bond on Edradour 10yo: 'How did they make this? Burn gummibears and dissolve them in gasoline?'
Christos Sigalas on Tullibardine 10yo: 'It's like licking Wembley's Arena green grass. Good only for drunk hooligans.'
W. Ripley on Mekong: 'Never drink anything that only gets a lukewarm recommendation from an Australian infantryman!'
S.Godfrey on Tobermory: 'While Tobermory may be a fine name for a womble, as a whisky it should be avoided at all costs.'
However, while I'm familiar with gummi bears, Wembley Arena, and Australian infantrymen, I didn't have the foggiest notion concerning a womble. Obviously, this is because I'm not British. According to the web, The Wombles are fictional characters of a sort of rat/aardvark hybrid popularized in late '60's books by Elisabeth Beresford (whose children referred to Wimbleton Common as Wombleton Common, hence the name and the most well known domain of The Wombles) and a '70's series on the Beeb (BBC), who "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish". Even if you're not familiar with the Wombles, you may be familiar with a cultural reference in The Rutles, as the drummer is Barrington Womble MBE. So that's a fairly good explanation of the quote, because Tobermory is a good name for a puppetish BBC character.
But it seems there is more to the definition of womble than the puppet characters Great Uncle Bulgaria, Tobermory (see, it's the actual name of one of the puppets), Orinoco, Bungo, Tomsk, Wellington and Madame Cholet. A womble can be someone from Wimbleton, presumably (thought that's a guess) fallout from the popularity of the television show. A womble can be the backstage/techie crew in a stage production. A womble is a character in the DiscworldMUD, based on the books of Terry Pratchett.
But there's more! A womble is a surname, or more precisely: "English: habitational name from Wombwell in South Yorkshire, named with the Old English byname Wamba meaning ‘belly’ (or this word used in a transferred topographical sense) + Old English well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’."
And, womble seems to have acquired a nerd definition, which is how I'm going to employ it in day-to-day work conversation, at which point I'll be "that manager who always says womble this and womble that." Womble: "n. [Unisys UK: from British puppet-show characters] A user who has great difficulty in communicating their requirements and/or in using the resulting software. Extreme case of luser. An especially senior or high-ranking womble is referred to as Great-Uncle Bulgaria. [Scooter: he was the head Womble]".
More than one nerd definition, if you use them as a metaphor for good interaction design in using what's available and what works rather than what's proper.
Should you need to obsess about puppets you may or may not have grown up watching on television, some helpful links include:
