History, The Baboon Congress

A Congress (or Something) of Baboons

80 Comments

I’m thinking the title of today’s post will draw many readers who are scanning the internet for the rare chance to indulge in some choice primate-based vitriol about our elected representatives.

If that’s what brought you here, welcome and apologies, for I’m going to disappoint you a bit – we don’t spend a lot of time venting about Congress at Trail Baboon. But we do tell stories and make lighthearted observations – often in the comments section of each post where a core group of visitors congregates. These are the aforementioned Baboons of the eponymous Trail.

It just turns out that a gathering of baboons anywhere in the world is called a “Congress”. Or not. There is some disagreement about this. It might be better to say “troop” or “tribe” or “flange”. Apparently an e-mail has recently made the rounds to promote a Congressional collection, but English is a living language so ultimately a group of baboons will be named whatever we decide to call them.

The Baboons in this Consortium, Collection or Clump sometimes write guest posts and I (as blog administrator) have resolved to credit those entries more clearly and completely, thus the new item in the top task bar called “The Baboon Congress”.

Take a look – you’ll see the names of some of the writers who have penned guests posts since this blog began almost four years ago. Each name should be accompanied by a click-able link that says “All posts by …” This will give you a sense of the prolific amount guest-blogging done at this site.

I’m grateful to the gentle readers who populate this place and am in the process of adding pages, bios, and the collected writings of every person who has contributed along the way, so check back with us regularly, feel free to join in the discussion, and before long you may discover that you are a baboon too!

What do you call it when you and your friends get together?

80 thoughts on “A Congress (or Something) of Baboons”

  1. Myself, I call that a Weekend Off 😉

    Pondering the idea of a “flange” of baboons – sounds very stylish.

    Do you ever sleep, Dale?

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    1. Would you recognize a weekend off if you saw one? I don’t think you’ve had one for a while now????

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      2. Oh yes, I can still spot the rare weekend off in the wild. Saw one weekend before last. Did the first ceremonial hanging of sheets of the season, hit the Farmer’s Market and trimmed the apple tree- may have to blog about my technique for the latter. It was almost like being on vacation!

        Thought I spotted another free weekend this coming weekend, but it got away before I could even fully consider what I would with it if I brought it home.

        Still holding out hope for BBC weekend……but not actually making real plans. That way lies madness.

        Ah well we work what we are given and are grateful, right?

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    2. I do, Mig, though it sometimes appears to other people that I am up and walking around while doing it. They believe they are having conversations with me, when in fact there is nobody home.

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  2. Good morning. I would refer to most of my meetings with friends as parties. Usually they are dinner parties in someone’s home. The Baboon book club meetings are more or less like a dinner party. At those meetings the various snack supplied by those attending are so copious that they more or less equal a dinner. When friends gather and no food is involved I would call it a meeting. However, it seems that meetings without food are rare in my experience.

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    1. “Book club” was going to be one of my responses, too, Jim. Between the 2 clubs I am part of, there is a lot of friendship and laughter.

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        1. Sometimes we do actually talk about a book. The Baboon club is much more disciplined about actually discussing the book we all were to have read than my other club – with my other club we can get together for 3 hours and only spend 20 minutes on the book we were supposedly reading.

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  3. A group I see a few times a year is referred to as the Pink Room Gang. It’s a reference to the restaurant in the former Dayton’s in downtown St. Paul. At one time they had two restaurants – the one on the lower level, the Iron Horse, was where the business-type guys had their three-martini lunches, and the River Room on the Cedar Street level was where the ladies-who-lunch went with their hat boxes and shopping bags. By the 1980’s the gender wall had crumbled, but the River Room still had pink tablecloths and pink cloth napkins for a time. So it was labeled the Pink Room, and so it remained even after they closed the Iron Horse and gave the Pink Room a makeover to remove all the pink.

    Alas, the Pink Room is no more. The Pink Room Gang gets together at Christo’s in the Union Depot building now.

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  4. I would say a “frolic” is an apt word – generally when my friends gather there is silliness, sometimes dancing, often laughter, occasionally mayhem and almost always food. Yep. A “frolic,” that’s what I’d call a gathering of my friends.

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      1. I think I may need to go in search of Crazy Freilach. Besides that the music is groovy, Daughter has been taking clarinet and this seems like good inspiration for a budding player (added bonus: one of her good friends is learning viola and they recently attempted to write a duet – this might be just the thing for both of them…though I think Crazy Freilach has a violin).

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  5. I’m lucky enough to also be friends with the members of my poetry group. We were just a group or workshop for a long time, until one of the members brought a short story, and someone else suggested we could now be a Salon. A “salon of poets” brings up odd visions of Rimbaud sitting under one of those huge hair dryers, though, so personally I think we might want to stick to being just a group. I’m sure there are more interesting words for a collection of poets, but we are Midwesterners, after all, and a “babble of poets” or “swoon of poets” or descriptors like that don’t suit us at all.

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  6. When Mickey Rooney’s buddies met, he’d say, “I know what we need to do. We’ll put on a show!” When my buddies gather, someone says, “Let’s have another party to fix and organize Steve’s house!” And then something really odd happens. People show up with buckets of paint and rakes and chain saws and garbage bags and big boxes and they throw themselves into the task of creating a little order at 2168 Juliet. And after the dust has settled, so to speak, we often have a party that might involve wine and pizza and once I served health food cupcakes. In Jim’s terms, that qualifies what we do as “parties” but parties rarely involve so much good-humored work gangs.

    I find this deeply moving. In fact, I think I will be moving soon. Tomorrow a photo crew will appear to take pictures of this renovated old bungalow so web sites can be created to sell it. The generosity of baboons knows no limits. Soon enough I might join the grandson who misses the grandpa who finds candy in his ears.

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  7. The condition of my life is that there are no such meetings of friends. Sad to say. The friends I developed after we moved here I lost through the collapse of our company. As a near-to-full-time caregiver, I am not in a place to develop any.
    So I will call a meeting of my group of Friends The Null Set.
    (As you see I’m back online fully. Today we go to the SW corner of The Cities for our usual reason but also going to Half-Price Books to sell and not buy, to MoRA, and Trader Joe’s.)

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    1. (reply to Clyde) Clyde, I have found I get more money for my books at Sixth Chamber Books in St. Paul and Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. You need an appointment at Sixth Chamber, not M&Q. Half-Price gives me pennies and the other place gives me dollars.

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  8. Hmmm…group noun for when my friends and I get together… Ok, here’s a list of candidates:
    1) A ‘Boister’
    2) A ‘Vocifer’
    3) An ‘Obnox’
    4) A ‘Frivole’
    5) A ‘Spontane’
    6) A ‘Nonsensicality’
    7) A ‘Conviviance’
    8) An ‘Antic’
    9) A ‘Ribald’
    10) A ‘Whimsy’
    Just as a start.

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  9. Riseand GAther Baboons!

    A party.

    I am gone from today to May 2 to Europe. This trip is Lou’s retirement victory lap–Holland to see tulip, Norway to visit ancestors, Scotlland for fun and more ancestors.

    I hope to report in along the way.

    Jacque

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  10. When I get together with one or more friends, it’s almost always called “golf.” When 15 or 20 of us show up at the course on Saturday morning, it’s called “Choose Up.” Each of us literally tosses a uniquely identified golf ball into a hat, then one person picks them out in groups of 4 or 5 as a way of determining who plays together that day.

    We stay friends this way for decades (some of the guys. Me, only 14 years) because if you can stand 18 holes of golf with me and I can stand 18 holes of golf with you, you are my friend and I am yours. Doesn’t mean we’re best buds, but golf has a way of revealing true personality like no other get together.

    Another name for this particular group might be “band of brothers” because most of us feel close enough to qualify as a typical dysfunctional family.

    Chris in Owatonna

    *Blatant Self Promotion (BSP) alert.*
    I mentioned in December that I’d sold an article to the Boundary Waters Journal and by golly, it was published in the Spring 2014 Issue, which may or may not be on your local newsstand. Now the real tension begins–waiting for the check to arrive in the mail. 🙂

    I have to say it’s a darn cool feeling to get paid for putting words on paper and telling folks what’s on your mind. Taking that tiny step of going from “aspiring author” to “published author” feels like rising just enough to get my nose above the “Slush pile” ocean of the millions of writers trying to get published, and most importantly paid. Just high enough to get a breath, see the light, focus on keeping afloat, and swim through the treacherous waters toward the next goal.

    *End BSP alert*

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      1. Thanks, PJ. 🙂 I get a lot of writing practice here, mostly by composing responses to TB posts as well as submitting my own guest post a while ago. So all you guys, led by Dale of course, helped a little by keeping me engaged and writing on some days where nothing else got down on paper (or electronic paper). Thanks for that.

        C

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      1. Thank you, Steve. It was a nice reward for all those endless hours of staring at the keyboard trying to think of what to write or how to write it. It seems a little reward goes a long way for writers–assuming I’m a representative sample of that particularly large group of “misfits.”

        Chris

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    6. congrats chris, savor the moment. next comes being a published writer who has to explain what hes working on now.
      looking forward to you piece.

      one piece of advice. dont have all the letters to the editor about that fantastic columnist come with owatana postmarks on them. i could write 1 but the other 4000 you are on your own

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  11. I call it a good time. Usually those get-togethers involve exquisite food, a little wine, stimulating conversation, and, if the occasion lends itself to it, some good laughs. We’re blessed to have among our friends some really fine cooks. These gatherings are usually in the evening. My daytime meet-ups often involve a cup of coffee or lunch and a good chat. Occasionally a visit to a museum or some other activity that lends itself to being together quietly, such as a walk through the Eloise Butler Wildflower garden, fits the bill. I’m fortunate to have some friends who are comfortable being together without a lot of conversation.

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  13. My dad is having a pre-birthday gathering for himself today at the local grocery store. His buddies from the last man’ club will be there along with neighbors and other friends. His birthday is in June, but he will be in ND with me by then, so he wanted to celebrate early. I am sitting in my mother’s hospital room where she was admitted this morning with a very serious case of pneumonia. It doesn’t look good and the doctor isn’t optimistic. We will save a pirce of Dad’s cake in case she recovers.

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    5. Very sorry to hear this, Renee, but glad that your timing is so impeccable. Sending healing thoughts your way.

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      1. I rather think it is their timing that is impeccable, not mine. Thank you all for your kind thoughts. This is turning out to be much more than any of us bargained for.

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        2. Best wishes to you and your family as you watch over your mom through her illness, Renee. Be sure to take time to care for yourself while you care for others.

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    6. Sorry to hear about your mom Renée
      glad your dads club is able to get together for his farewell party I love the name of the last guy club I hope you can get back in there and join the boys before it’s over once and for all

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    8. what good fortune that you are there for this time of challange renee both for them and for you. they need your bossy pants to look after the details and you need to be there to do what you can and accept what you cant.
      peace

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  15. About fifteen years ago, several of my high school friends noticed that the only time they saw each other was at their parents’ funerals. That’s when they decided to kick off a monthly “breakfast club”. We rotate between homes and, when no one volunteers to host, arrange to meet at a local restaurant. For me, it can be somewhat boring because, as time passes, it seems that their main focus is aches & pains of aging.
    Also, I’m the only single member, the rest having either been married to the same person for 40+ years or remarried several times. For the most part, they’re fairly wealthy and most have a second home in either Arizona or Florida. Politics are off the table, but this very traditional group is predominantly conservative. I’m likely viewed as the whacky eccentric of the group, a title I well deserve. Just as in high school, though, I don’t feel like I really “fit in”.

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  16. It might be said that we Babooners are a merry band of misfits, Crystal. 🙂 I rarely feel like I “fit in” with most groups of people, but I’ll do it on the surface for expedience’s sake and then fade into the background and return to my little world.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  17. Like Anna, a lot of gatherings that I’m included in have laughter as a component. And like Jim, most of them include food, especially any baboon “boisters”. And like CB and Chris, most of these gatherings are probably seen by most of the world as just slightly off the norm.

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  18. I call it Book Club. Or…ummm…geez, I guess I don’t have much of a social life – I can’t think of anything else.

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  19. My dad’s party today was quite fun. He got to see his buddies and they got to catch up with me and my life. I have known all of them and their spouses since I was a little girl. Dad buzzed around serving cake and ice cream and tried not to worry about mom.

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  21. when my group got together in years gone by for our annual kyacking trip to the brule we attended the jamboree. there were state parks up there that that had wonderful facilities and nicer spots by far than the spot we chose to camp but the ability to hoot and holler and howl at the moon was the primary consideration. whts the use of runnig water if you have to sing quietly around the campfire. if the drunken laughter of well meaning friends singing the limerick song is to be looked down upon with the picking as easy as mark and bob and rex than what the heck good is a limerick? its never the same out of context as it is when you are there. you just had to be there was the feeling as stories retold bring tears and sentances gasp for air trying to get to the punchline of memories so fond you laugh and cry and want for it to never end. i love the gatherings of friends from my past and the memories of the good times but i wouldnt trade them for the crew here on the trail and the comapssionate baboons who will hold a special spot whenever the opportunities to recall moments held special come up. you are my sunshine, jim eds death, dales brother, now renees mom is a sinking feeling but such a feeling of love form all of us. all of us but edith.. that hardened shell of a woman is a truely uniwques baboon.
    love you all and all i can say is:

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