The Baboon Congress, Words

We’ve Got Your G.O.A.T.

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Today’s guest post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale.

Ah, Babooners are a word-loving bunch, and if they don’t find the word they seek in the common lexicon, they will create their own. To keep track of these, we occasionally update our “Glossary of Accepted Terms” , or G.O.A.T.

This acronym was coined by our Alpha Baboon, Dale (he of the CAP – see ACRONYMS, below). For the uninitiated:  when we started this “dictionary”, we had a couple of goat farmers among our personnel (welcome back, Cynthia), which explains a little. Jacque and I collaborated on the first one, and I’ve kept it going, sporadically. Here we are past Summer Solstice of 2015, two years since the last update in May of 2013.

Sometimes the newly created word is the result of a typo; others are just sheer cleaverness . The dates are left in, in case you have a lot of time on your hands and wish to find out what the HECK was going on at the time.

I now have a system – copy and paste the new word into a M’soft Word file with all the information I’ll need, and then edit like crazy when I’ve collected enough to make a post. It appeals to my love for making order out of chaos.

To visit the Glossary, go to top right, under The Trail Photo.

Here are the latest additions:

Accidentalics – i.e. “Ooops… unintended italics.  Do we have a word for that?”   December 16, 2013 at 11:12 pm 

Achedemic – Learning something the hard way, as in “she seems to be heading off in more achedemic directions…”          September 3, 2014 at 8:17 am 

Binoculookers – a device that helps you see farther than you usually can. For instance “Then she asked her dad if she could ‘use his binoculookersto view the bear in the night sky’ ”.   February 23, 2015 at 12:10 pm 

Crimea River – a river in Crimea, OR a sad song. “If you’re aim is to turn this geopolitical episode into a musical, don’t forget to include Crimea River as one of the numbers.”  (unfortunately, I lost track of the date for this one.) .March 24, 2014 at 7:40 pm 

Disphasia – the condition of being out of synch with others of your generation  (did I get this right, Clyde?), as in “The gap has created some interesting disphasia in our life.”   June 23, 2015

Distraughtitude – The condition of being distraught, as in:  “I’m sure that the distraughtitude of the usual suspects will probably be more pronounced.”   June 3, 2015 at 8:09 am

Experience Loyal – An alternative to being  brand loyal:   “I am experience-loyal  Give me a good experience, and I’m bound to come back.”   November 25, 2013 at 11:58 am 

fauxtimming  November 25, 2013 at 3:34 pm – “a disorder having to do with the inability to remember to capitalize and or punctuate. on occasion there may be a hand held device that intercedes and give the impression of english etiquette but it is an illusion. it is called fauxtimming. [timism] * and fauxtimming are not taught but can be easily implemented with any standard keyboard and a computer that has a disarm feature on its spell checker.”       October 6, 2014 at 11:16 am

Hygge, hyggelig – A Danish word that doesn’t have an English counterpart:  “Hygge” is part state of mind, part physical coziness that includes comfort and warmth, and good smells. As we get close to Christmas, a batch of gløg, a few Christmas cookies, soothing music and, again, a lot of lit candles help make things  hyggelig  …”       December 21, 2013 at 8:03 am

Mingy, minginginess – “Being skimpy, paring everything just inside of “enough”. Rhymes with stingy, and means about the same but not quite, as there is also an implication of deception-pretended generosity. (This is actually in the dictionary, folks.)”  October 22, 2014 at 11:36 am 

Mushroomisticism – slow cooking a mushroomy dish for hours at low heat.  “im tackling suaces as my next challenge, that and mushroomisticism.” February 5, 2015 at 7:49 am

Multi-nontasking – looking around and seeing all the things one hasn’t managed to get done. August 1, 2013 at 7:15 pm       i.e. “I can sit with a cat on my lap while listening to a ball game.”  August 2, 2013 at 12:03 am

Procrasti-tasks – “things you don’t want to do, but you do them to avoid something you want to do less. For example, if you have laundry to fold which has been sitting for days but you also have a grant request to write, suddenly the laundry is folded.”   January 12, 2015 at 10:37 am

timism – (from G.O.A.T.) – An ambiguity in which you are not sure whether there was a typo, or an intentional misspelling, as in “My favorite timism of the week is ‘Talk snout dysfunctional’…” (See Dec. 23, 2010 TBB for rich, complete discussion.)

To-do-plegia – Wikipedia uses “plegia” to describe paralysis in which all voluntary movement is lost.” To-do-plegia involves a to-do list, as in “I need lots of good energy sent my way this week. … [to accomplish] the to-do list…”     September 8, 2014 at 10:31 am 

Turbo-mouse – A rodent capable of monumental achievement, say, climbing with a malted milk ball to a place 12’ off the ground.   “My apologies to the turbo-mouse if I am not giving credit where it is due.” November 25, 2014 at 6:23 am 

Unfronding – In response to Dale’s hand-weeding description: I need to confront the weeds personally, face to frond”, there was this comment: “These days we call what you do unfronding the weeds.” August 5, 2013 at 7:06 am        DC: “Hah! Just think, I could have wasted all those hours on Facebook instead!”

Weasel words – Product description lingo that disguises some aspect of the contents of a food, as in “If a product is described as chocolatey, that’s an almost certain indicator that there’s no actual chocolate in it.”   February 28, 2014 at 11:29 am

Worm wigs – a very creative typo that created this mental image:  “I wonder if I wore a worm wig if that could solve my winter composting problems – I could have compost-eating worms right on top of my head.”   March 27, 2014 at 1:12 pm

Yikes meter – a measure of… take your pick:  outrageousness, offensiveness, or unbelievability that causes a Baboon to say “Well, that’s way up there on the yikes meter.”   March 22, 2015 at 9:58 pm

ACRONYMS:

CAT – I admit to having Compulsive Acronym Tendencies     February 21, 2015

CRAPO – Calendar Reactive Anniversary Pile On   November 22, 2013

When you feel compelled to make a list, what’s on it?

 

 

 

69 thoughts on “We’ve Got Your G.O.A.T.”

  1. Making a to-do list is my absolute top go-to procrasti-task.

    Bonus points if I then create an impossibly intense schedule from that list.

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  5. I actually spent some time discussing my lists with my therapist years ago. I used to make lists and then stress myself out trying to finish everything item on the list, usually in an impossible time frame. So now I make lists when I’ve got too much rattling around in my head; by getting it onto paper, my brain can then let go of it. My rule is that if I don’t get to everything in a few days, I toss the list. The one extravagance that I allow myself is to type the lists up and use graphics and funny fonts before I print them out.

    Oh, and if I do something that I think is list-worthy, but it’s not on the list, then I write it in by hand and then highlight it! My list, my rules.

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    2. you know, I almost never computerize a list. in fact, once I have made a pencil and paper list, I don’t really even go back to it, just stuff it in the nearest book.

      Sometimes I even have to stop mid-list and start making other sup-lists that supercede the original and way-to-broad list.

      I suspect I think by list-making…..

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      2. I like making lists on google drive. I say it’s because then I never lose it, but really it’s because it’s easier to ignore.

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  6. To do’s of course, in subcategories.
    Where and what to photograph; places and topics to paint
    Regular chores and when I last did them
    Novel characters: name, life details, relationships
    Birds and mammals seen by our apartment
    Just recently, guest blog topics

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  7. And then there’s my reading list. It started as a list of books I wanted to read; I was working at a bookstore and found that I was keeping a running list in my head of things I wanted to read and it was making me nuts, so I started a journal. If I read something on the list I would check it off. I still have that initial journal somewhere around here.

    List is now computerized, one tab on the spreadsheet per year. These days I keep track of the name of the book, author, genre, date I finished reading it and stars (1 for real stinkers and 5 for outstanding). I also have tabs for the English monarchs in order, the US presidents, the Caldecott winners, the Newbery winners and all the Sherlock Holmes titles – I’m working my way through all these lists as well (I’ve actually already read all the Holmes stories, but decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to read them again in order). I had a tab for Agatha Christie but decided after re-reading her first three that I didn’t really want to continue!

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  8. Rise and 6 snorts on the Snort-o-Meter!

    Well Done Barb.

    Grocery lists.
    Lists of tasks to complete at work until the next_____.
    Lists of lists.

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  10. I start making lists whenever another work assignment looks to be ending. Lists of expenses, lists of ways to cut expenses, lists of other ways to make money to tide things over, lists of places to apply for jobs, lists of places I have applied to, lists to schedule my day until the temp agency calls–a (usually vain) attempt to manage my panic some other way than by spending days watching entire box sets of DVDs and reading fanfic online…

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  11. I’m a sporadic list maker. Nothing esoteric, just your occasional to-do list and shopping list. I’ll do a shopping list if there’s an item that I keep forgetting to buy, something like salt, olive oil, or toilet cleaner.

    From time to time I’ll also do a list of menu ideas or items to include in a recipe. Just a reminder that a handful of olives and/or capers, a little goat cheese or sprig of mint, and a squirt of lemon or lime juice can make a big difference.

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  12. Count me as a recovering list maker. I used to. Now I try not to.

    A few years back I got behind on my taxes. Then anxiety set in regarding the old taxes. On any “to do” list I would have “pay taxes” prominently featured, maybe underlined or bold faced. But months would go by with “pay taxes” on my list, only I wouldn’t pay them. And then years. I came to see that making a list of my good intentions was a substitute for doing anything, as if putting something on the list (like “lose 17 pounds”) was in some way equivalent to doing it.

    After reflection, I realized that things I put on lists were mostly things I didn’t want to do and probably wasn’t going to do. Meanwhile I needed no lists to remind me to do things I was already going to do. I never put “eat ice cream” on a list, but that was a task I could complete. And did. In fact, I ate more ice cream than I paid taxes.

    I haven’t gone cold turkey on lists. Thanks to the fuzz of an aging brain, I forget things I really mean to do. So now some of them go on lists. That’s useful if I remember to list them, and if I remember to print the lists, and if I then remember to take the list with me when it is appropriate to do so.

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  13. Yes, one of the goat ladies is back. Barb — formerly of Trial Balloon and Trail Baboon fame — is in so deep with her goats she has no time for anything else. Catch photos on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/MeadowWild-Farm-Alpine-Goats/213813478686775?fref=ts or her website: meadowwildfarm.com

    I, on the other hand, am milking one and cussing the (neutered) boy goat I call “Trouble” most of the time.

    Lists: yes, make grocery lists and forget them at home. Sometimes make to-do lists and lose them. From time-to-time I note the various bird visitors (in the winter for Project Feederwatch, in the summer just for historical interest.)

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  14. I make to do lists. Anything that I want to make sure that I do is what goes on the list. This works most of the time. I try to only put things on the list that I think are important.

    In the past I made some long lists and didn’t get everything on the list done. Usually it turned out that the things I didn’t do were things I really didn’t needed to do so that was okay. Some things that I should do and didn’t do get carried over to a new list and some things I think I should do never get done. If you don’t get something done that you should do is it really something you need to do?

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      2. I still help with the goat show and log cabin history exhibit at the Carlton County fair. Come visit. It is Aug 13-16 this year. In Barnum.

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  16. I recently got a free Netflix account through my grandson’s family. I immediately began listing all the movies, documentaries, and series that appealed to me, then launched into viewing whole seasons worth of episodes of one series or another. Within days, I’ve become a total addict with series watching. No commercials, one episode running into another then another. I don’t have the willpower to stop. My life has spun out of control. One day, I clocked 10 hours watching House of Cards; now I’m doing battle with Scandal after watching Orange is the New Black.

    And then, the boom was lowered two days ago: my ISP emailed a notice that I was on the edge of using all of my 150 giga bites and I’d be charged $10 for each additional 15 minutes past my monthly allotment. I’ve never even heard of a “giga bite”, much less known that there was a quota of the damn things.

    I’ve now calculated exactly how many episodes a day I can use to stay under my limit: 3.4 to be exact. As I see it now, this may be the only way I can control my addiction.

    I threw out the list.

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    1. Been there done that, but no one sent me notice of overuse. I spent much of December and January sleeping and watching Netflix. Totally addicted. I have some 150 in my queue, but am now under control…I seldom watch anything that lasts more than an hour.

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      1. Is there a 12-step group for Netflix? NFA ?? Please tell me how you regained self-control. It’s entirely the series which are the problem because they never end!

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        1. I was newly retired and exhausted, going through physical therapy…energy restored and from time to time I run out of episodes of favorites. But the temptation does return with new episodes or new series. Currently enmeshed in Murdoch Mysteries.

          12 steps would be good…

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        2. i have posted before about my son who is ocd in a mild but noticble way who was taken with pee wee back whn the show was new. i had tapes of the 1/2 shows and then garfield the cat was on after. the taped show would come to an end and garfield would staet then click click the next pee wee would begin and my son who was getting up to go to the bathroom would sit down again and be mesmerized by pee wee only to have it end and garfield the cat to come on again and the as he was getting up to go to the bathroom again and pee wee would come on and after about 3 hours i heard daaaaad!!!!! i keep trying to get up to go to the bathroom but then pee wee starts again and i have to sit back down. he was holding himself and almost crying. i still chuckle thinking about it. that was the day i taught him about the pause button

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    3. i maybe shouldnt ask but…. are you watching through your phone and not on your wifi? wifi doesnt have a quota. only telephones have quotas in my experience

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  17. Husband is a meticulous list maker. He makes lists for about every trip to the store. He also makes list for things he thinks about that he wants to get in the distant future. He stops those lists on his dresser and amalgamates them over time.He doesn’t like to let me have his list when we shop since I am a careless list caretaker and have too many compartments in my purse for lists to disappear into.

    Driving back home across ND in heavy smoke from Alberta wild fires.

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  18. I just noticed the funniest product name on the door of a bathroom stall at a rest stop outside of Jamestown, ND. The door is manufactured so that there is no space between where the door closes and the door frame. It is thus impossible to see in or out of the stall. It is called a “Hiney Hider” brand bathroom stall door.

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    2. Love it. And it reminds me of one of the best bargains of my life. One of life’s shocks awaits those who absolutely must use an outhouse, but the temperature is well south of zero. Then we bought something from a mail order business: a styrofoam toilet seat called the Cheek Warmer. A bit of heaven, that.

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  19. Somtimes i casually mention around husband that I like something or remark that something might be nice to have, and he writes it on a list and then feels compelled to look for it when he goes shopping. It is hard for him to understand that I am often just making conversation and don’t really want to acquire what I admire.

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        1. You and Linda were at my cabin, BiR, at a time I was desperate to give away stuff we no longer needed. You two didn’t dare let your eyes linger on a kitchen utensil or vase for fear I’d come at you with a frantic “take it, its yours!!!” pitch.

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  21. I have a list I call Missing Things. It’s a list of places I can no longer go to, people’s pets, discontinued products, anything that once contributed pleasure to life and is now gone. Examples include Betty Crocker pudding cake mixes; Larson’s Greenhouse and its resident cats; the River Room in the former Dayton’s store in downtown St. Paul; the next-door neighbor’s chihuahua, Ben; the green stairs; Jerabek’s julekaga; and, of course, TLGMS.

    I also have a list of things that are not gone yet, as a reminder that I need to appreciate them while I have them. This blog is one. 🙂

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      1. I have a few bookstores on the list. Odegard’s is one. Also the Borders in the midway shopping center. A chain, but I still liked going there.

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      1. it was the last of the great hardware stores. lyndale hardware was the minneapolis version 7 crners the st paul version. a hardware store where they never sent you anywhere else to get anything. they had it all there. and knew what to tell you to get and how to use it. beiswingers is a bit like that. frattalonies is not at all like that.

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  22. We’re I a researching sociologist, I would study Trail baboons to investigate their degree of life satisfaction as a result of their affiliation compared to those not similarly affiliated.

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  23. i bega making lists way back when i first bought my hose and had plans in mind. i guess i started before that with lists of options of classes to take to help me go for=ward with my studies bt i ended up trying to do all the things on the lists and it just about killed me in school. in my house list on yellow legal pads i would list the tasks the approximate cost and time involved and ge tthe plotting done. after i sold the house i found of those lists from 20 years earlier and was impressed with the fact that every item on the list had been accomplisehed and the list was 3 legal pages long. when i wrote it none was done but i knew what i wanted and got it done.
    today i make lists of stuff i am thinking about so i remember to get back to it and to list the stuff people at a group meeting are offering because so much of it merits more research and i know nothing about a lot of the stuff they are talking about. books to read , continuems of the topic
    songs that get written while i am walking or driving down the road. stuff to pick up for recipes i want to get around to, people i want to include inthe round tble discussions i hold in my imagination.
    i also have lists today of the businesses i ma in the midst of birthing and the directions they will need to go and the steps they will need to hit and when. i hadnt realized i still do this bir thanks i thought i just took notes and kept lists of things as i was doing them but i have a chronological list of lists on my cell phone going back about ten years and it is interesting. i have y emails going back 15 years or so still on file and can look up anything in that time frame with a key word search.if i remember a reference point i can find it.
    i used to have lists of the stuff i had on tape from old radio recording and thing s like tapes of speakers and inspirational things i had then it got away form me and i discovered i have angst about getting all the lists in order so i stopped. now i try to enjoy the moment and go with what my grandfather taught me years ago. he didnt teach me much but he did teach me that you dont need to write down the important stuff. everyone always remember the important stuff . you just need to write down the stuff youll forget if you dont write it down. i was going to make a list about something but i dont remember what it was about. i will have to wait and see if its important enough to remember

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