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next This afternoon we were having a cram session for the girls before tomorrow's Nature Bowl. We were groping around for a definition of species and Bonnie said, "What are we, Homo erectus?" I said, "No, we're Homo sapiens sapiens. We got an extra sapiens somewhere along the line." The girls had no idea what we were talking about. I tried to explain. "Homo habilis," I said. Bonnie giggled. "You remember. That's handy man. James Taylor wrote a song about him." "He did?" Bonnie said, playing along. Criminy started to sing a song about a handy man, which was not the James Taylor song, but one she made up. It bugs me when she does that. "Don't do that, Cri," I said. "Stop." "Homo Erectus walked upright," I continued. Bonnie was staring into her lap, giggling. The girls kept looking between us, trying to figure out what was so funny. "She's laughing because I'm saying 'homo,'" I said. Bonnie started giggling again. "The word can also be used a slur against a gay person." "It's not that funny; it's just the way Annabel says it," Bonnie said. "She's not used to hearing me say it, I guess." I was a little baffled, to be honest. But Bonnie could not stop giggling every time I said it. What is wrong with the way I say homo? Homo. Ho-mo. I don't hear anything. Anyway, I've learned a lot about wetlands. I came up with an acronym to describe the characteristics of wetlands: S stands for hydric SOILS (1) Man, I wish I could have had this much fun in fourth grade the first time around. prev archive next 1 comments random |