I'm reading a novel by Iain Pears called Death & Restoration. It's pretty good so far, not unlike An Instance of the Fingerpost, which turned out to be a spectacularly good novel. Well this is one of his mysteries, and the main character just noted that the worse the music people listen to, the louder they listen to it. I've noticed the same thing in my comings and goings, but I would also like to add a corrolary to that statement. When it comes to people, it seems that the less relevant, more insignificant and more wrong the things they say, the louder they seem to shout them. Am I wrong?

This is the view from my couch today... it is not possible that it is possible that this could get any cuter.

Residents of Webster, Massachusetts were aghast when they discovered that the local government had erected a sign directing people to the local lake on which they had misspelled the name of their beloved Lake Webster. How could such a mistake have been made? Perhaps the name of the lake is a little confusing.



Lake Webster is the English name for the local body of water, although it is more appropriately called by it’s Native American name Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The moniker was applied to the lake by the Monuhchogoks, a local group of the Nipmuck people, and it translates approximately to “Englishmen at Manchaug at the fishing place at the boundary."

The sign misspelled the official 45 letter name putting an H in place of the last N, and an O in the 20th letter spot, in place of the proper U.

At 45 letters the lake is also cited as having the longest place name of any location in the United States. In it’s longest spelled version Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (which is 49 letters) the word has been cited as having the most instances of any single letter in a word, with the letter G being represented seventeen (17) times. The name also contains 10 instances of the letter "a" (not including the "a" in "lake"), more than any word in the English language.

For more information about this wonderful piece of Americana, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chaubunagungamaug. I’m particularly interested in the songs written about the lake, and hearing someone sing the name. Also fascinating is the spurious story concocted about the meaning of the lake in the 1920s, and the 1950s poem written as part of an effort to standardize the spelling of the name at 45 letters.

Other amazing facts for the curious…

The title of “longest place name in an English speaking country” belongs to Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a Maori name.

Some have said that Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, is the longest place name. It’s a village on the island of Anglesey in Wales. Definitely the longest place name in the Welsh language, and the longest place name in the UK, the name is 51 letters long in the Welsh alphabet, the can be translated as "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave".

But consider this one…

The full name of the city of Bangkok (Krungthep) in the Thai language is Krungthepmahanakonbowornratanakosinmahintarayudyayamahadiloponoparatanarajthaniburiromudomrajniwesmahasatarnamornpimarnavatarsatitsakattiyavisanukamphrasit, and is the Guinness Book’s favorite for longest name in the world.

The translation here is more historical story than a word... but it's pretty cool.

krungthep mahanakhon - The land of angels, the great city of

amorn rattanakosin - immortality, various of devine gems
mahintara yudthaya mahadilok pohp - the great angelic land unconquerable
noparat rajathanee bureerom - land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital
udomrajniwes mahasatarn - place of the grand royal palace
amorn pimarn avaltarnsatit - forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits
sakatattiya visanukram prasit - predestined and created by the highest devas

See also:

Wikipedia - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Wikipedia - Longest_word_in_English

Wikipedia - Longest_words

King/Queen of the Stacks

Someday, I will run a library of my own. I have had friends who worked as library pages in high school, and they did almost nothing but shelving books. That may also be why shelving books is one of the most loathsome tasks in any library. It's dull, monotonous, and in all other ways BORING. I happen to like small doses of it from time to time. The sheer order out of chaos feeling of tucking each volume, with its protective plastic jacket, into it's right place has something calming about it. It's almost spiritual the way in which each book and all of the information therein, seems to take on an almost higher meaning when it is ensconced within the bosom of a library stack, and nestled among all of its cousins, brothers and sisters in its family of knowing. Yet people hate shelving books. On the TV show Bones, two of the lab 'squints' Zach and Hodgins play a little game with each other... "king of the lab". When one makes some new discovery, he is "king of the lab" for that moment. I think that in my library, there will be stacks of 10 books at a time that the pages will have to shelve. They will be timed at this exercise, and the page who shelves 10 different books the fastest, demonstrating a proficiency for efficiency and knowledge of the library organization.. will be "king or queen of the stacks" for that moment. While shelving might be the most hated task in every library in the world... in MY library, it will be damned fun.

Animal awesomeness...

When one gathers together a group of animals of the same variety, one can apply the collective noun to them.. i.e. A herd of cattle, A flock of birds, A Gaggle of Geese. Here are some collective nouns though that you may not have heard of, but are accepted terms for certain species. And boy are they awesome.

A group of Weasels or Ferrets is called a gang, or a pack... but it can also be called a BOOGLE or a CONFUSION. Here are some other good ones.

A Coffle of Donkies
A Company of Badgers
A Flutter or A Rabble of Butterflies
A Murder of Crows
A Pipe of Eels
A Bundle of Frogs
A Bloat of Hippopotamus... or a Thunder of Hippos.
A Smack, Smuck, Smuth or Fluther of Jellyfish... yes... that was Smuth.
A Risk of Lobsters (presumably from the risk you take putting your fingers in there)
A Mischief of Mice
A Troop or A Barrel of Monkeys
A Romp of Otters
An Amalgamation of Pandas
A Chine of Polecats
A Mob of Kangaroos.

There are also collective adjectives. Most people know that Bovine describes cattle and things like cattle. Ovine refers to sheep and Lupine is for wolves. But, did you know that Kangaroos are Macropodine? You guessed it. Big Footed. Otterine is a word describing Sea Lions, Seals and Walruses... but not otters. Otters are Musteline. Perhaps the best of these words is the adjective pertaining to Wombats... it's Phascolomian. I love saying that Phascolomian... it sounds... so... Jurassic.

Oh yeah... helminthic means... Worm Like. Food for thought.

My first post...

So I've had it in my head lately that it would be awesome to do a remake, a sweeded version if you will, of Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery. I'm hung up on the casting though. See, I want to cast George W Bush as Dr. Evil, but I don't know how to pitch it to him. I had pretty much the whole evil side worked out... Rush Limbaugh is Number 2, Condoleeza Rice could play Frau Farbissena, and Sarah Palin could play all the fem-bots. CR and Rush are all in it for the publicity, so they'll do it no doubt. Caribou Barbie would fall for anything as long as you told her she could keep an eye out for Russians... Bush is the tough one. How do I talk him in to playing Dr. Evil... Hmmmm.