So it's summer break and essentially that means I've got lots of extra time to weed the reference collection. Right now it's dictionaries of all sorts. I'd like to share a few random, and clearly very useful, facts with you.
1. According to the book, Narcotics Lingo & Lore (1959), "Muggles" are "Marijuana cigarettes." I kid you not. Shame on you, J.K. Rowling.
2. Some terms for smoking marijuana cigarettes, according to the same book, are: "Bounce the goof balls", "Drink Texas Tea", "Lie in state with the girls", and "Twist a giraffe's neck". Honestly, what were they smoking when they came up with those phrases?! Oh wait, I know.....
Lame, sorry.
3. I found a book that answers a question I've had since grad school. Just how do you pronounce Djibouti? Well, folks, look no further than the International Book of Names (1938): je boo te' - all vowels have long marks over them. so Gee-boo-tea, with accent on the last syllable is my best guess.
6 comments:
Oh man, my international politics professor at Davidson LOVED to say "Djibouti." He managed to fit it into almost every single lecture. The reason? He did his darnedest to make it sound like "Your booty."
Yeah, I like to pronounce it Ja-booty, but I guess that's not so correct. :)
Okay, so somehow that post sounds AWFULLY familiar to an incident we had in Library School...
:-)
The Fighting Librarian - Um, yes, I must confess that I thought of you when I decided to look up the pronunciation of Djibouti. Honestly, I can't remember how that word came up in the first place back in Library School.
And I also must admit that weeding the dictionaries brought back fond memories of our escapades in the "dictionary aisle" at Library School. There was something about a jib perhaps? Some funny slang phrase? And the other one I remember is "premium blend." I've forgotten all the others.
I'm fascinated that "Djibouti" was apparently a common topic in both law school and library school, yet the engineer (who never once heard mention of Djibouti in his "Advanced Thermodynamics and Fluid Flow" class) was the only one who knew how to say it.
(and why was all your research centered on pot??)
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