Couple things.
First. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but I have moved into a new role at work. I am still working with Procter & Gamble, but am no longer on the Baby/Family account. I have officially transitioned to Pet Care – so go buy IAMS! At Wal-Mart! This is a good move for me and I’m excited for a chance to do something new. You’d think that understanding people who shop Pet would be a far cry from understanding Baby department shoppers — and you’d be miserably wrong… Apparently, there are a growing number of people out there who consider their pets part of the family and more or less treat them like people/children — and that’s the way they shop. So far the similarities are surprising.
Secondly. It is no wonder to me that people have such a hard time with the English language. For gosh sakes, we have about a million ways to say “[group] of [animals]”. Listening to a story on Today this morning about a boy who was attacked by a Great White Shark but saved by a pod of dolphins got me thinking. Why on earth do we need a unique term for every group of animals? Pod of dolphins. Pack of dogs. School of fish. Pride of lions. Gaggle of geese. It’s ridiculous. I decided to google this and it only got worse. Enjoy.
A few of my favorites from the list…
Charm of hummingbirds. Exaltation of larks. Lounge of lizards. Tidings of magpies. Labor of moles. Bouquet of pheasants. Murder of crows. Crash of rhinoceri. Business of ferrets. Implausibility of gnus. Mob of wallabies. Sneak of weasels. Bloat of hippopotami.
Your new role makes you about 12% cooler in my book.
Monday?
This is the first time that I’ve read any of your posts, but I have to say that I agree with you wholeheartedly. I mean seriously. You’ve heard people complain that immigrants “need to learn the language,” but especially considering these types of things or if you consider that fact that we have way too many homophones and homonyms. Why do we even have these in the first place? It truly makes no sense. My favorite, however, is in fact the “implausibility of gnus.” Be on the look out.
Josh Boldman
http://www.joshboldman.com
First of all, the English language is the best in the world; who wants to go through life speaking a black and white, binding language? In a word: boring. I know you are a fan of language – or maybe not… perhaps you just like the rules??
Secondly, congrats on the promotion. I learned this fact about people and their pets after Avery was born. People would ask me about her, I would explain something amazing that I had learned recently about the beauty of children (thanks to Avery), and I would get a response to this effect; “Yeah, my dog does that, etc…” It kind of disgusts me a little. I hold nothing against dogs, mind you… They can’t help it if their owners are obsessive, lonely, and painstakingly in search for something to do with their lives; that the only thing that feeds this hunger is to watch them compulsively do what they cannot help: to act like awkward beasts in a human environment. You know, a rock looks like a sleeping infant at times…