Thursday, November 17, 2005

It's a party!

Young Ben just summoned me to the bathroom, having pooped. (I keep forgetting that wiping is really something he should be doing for himself.) Now, typically he doesn't editorialize about the day's production, but this time? "It's a party poo." Meaning the toilet bowl contained a festive assortment of discrete nuggets, and when that many of them gather in one place, it's gotta be a party! I honestly don't know where he came up with that.

(I think he may need to drink more water.)

In the course of doing some medical editing, I encountered a handy new word, and I want you all to start using it. There are a few equivalent versions, so I'm sure you'll find one you're comfortable with. Stercoraceous, stercorous, or stercoral, all with the stress on the first syllable, meaning "having to do with excrement." Why call someone on their BS when instead you can impugn their rhetoric as being stercoraceous? Don't call that lousy movie merely "crappy"—call it "one of the more stercoraceous films in the director's oeuvre."

17 comments:

Charlie said...

If you're like me and need extra help with your pronunciation, you may be interested in Merriam-Webster's stercoraceous entry. If you click the little speaker icon next to the word, a nice lady will say it for you.

Bella Sultane said...

Thanks!

I was looking for a nice adjective for a politics post. It's perfect!

Feral Mom said...

I love Ben.

Mona Buonanotte said...

It sounds like a dinosaur. "Scientists in New Mexico today unearthed the rare stercoraceous. Then then flushed and used lots of soap when they washed."

T.A.N. said...

great word ... definitely slides right into the mix.


what about stercoraceous sex? is that dirty anal, or crappy?

DoctorMama said...

When you diagnose trichomonas by doing a vaginal smear and looking under the microscope, sometimes there's a whole bunch of them together, waving their legs. It looks like a trich party. A trich disco.

Bored Housewife said...

I would like to see the answer to TAN's question...

and I love the idea of insulting people in such a snooty manner!!!

Krupskaya said...

My roommate in college taught me the phrase fecal emesis, which meant barfing up your own poo because you're so blocked. The idea of that is somehow compulsively fascinating to me.

Orange said...

Krup, that's disgusting. You know what's not? Your old butter-and-sugar sandwiches. I've been hankering to try one ever since you mentioned them.

Krupskaya said...

Indulge. You'll never go back to PB.

One more note on fecal emesis: Our dog used to be in the habit of eating his own poo (coprophagia, another good word). One night he ate his poo, chewed on a tree for awhile and ate some bark, and then at 2 a.m. woke us up barfing it all up.

Bored Housewife said...

Seriously, Orange, it's at moments like that when I wonder if it's physically possible to be more in love with my kids. The blank slate of their insides is breathtaking--the fact that they don't have all the hangups that we do, etc. And then there's the coolness factor of poop talk in general. eh...well...

T.A.N. said...

I miss Orange.

T.A.N. said...

Yay Orange!!

T.A.N. said...

this probably looks unseemly from a comment box perspective. but no shame in my game with Mama O

Orange said...

TAN Man, you'll have much better luck attaining your goal if you appeal to my intellectual vanity, or at least show a little engagement with my writing. Are you really too young to have figured that out by now?

T.A.N. said...

that sounds very rational. And I"m sure you're right, because you're incredibly smart.

But problem is I lose control of my rational faculties and sensibilities when I come here. it's difficult enough trying to translate the only words in my head "me want orange" to something like "I miss Orange," which allows me to retain some dignity.

plus since your rack is no longer on the board, isn't it self-evident that your intellectual prowess and incomparable ability to wrestle with rhetoric are the fuel for the engine of my desire.

you might need to edit that a little. but hopefully the premise came across.

Orange said...

Dude, you know you can see the picture any old time in the October archives (scroll down toward the beginning of the month). And rumor has it that pictures on the internets can be copied. Anyway...I have recently had an epiphany that provides all the rationalization I need to post another picture. It'll take some time if I opt for a brand-new picture, though.