Friday, November 25, 2011

A quiver of insults


Taking a break from thinking too much--or at least thinking way too seriously--with this little road game. We are all familiar with the terms of venery for many common animals: a herd of cattle, a gaggle of geese, a school of fish. There are also some less common, but very cool names: a parliament of owls, intrusion of cockroaches, and my personal favorite, a murder of crows. And it occurred to me the other day that traveling nationals deserve their own terms to fit our stereotypes for them. Here are some to get us started, and please contribute in the comments.



A complaint of Americans
- or -
A volume (as in loudness) of Americans

An annoyance of Germans

A pretense of French

A riot of Aussies

 An excellence (said “eeksulunce”) of Kiwis (New Zealanders)

A whinging of Poms (Brits)

A pint of Irish

A complaisance of Canadians

An intensity of Israelis

A towering of Dutch (they're really freakin' tall)

A flourish of Italians

That should get your judging juices flowing. What else?

Else (suggested by readers)...

- A congress of baboons (not in the tourist vein, but too good to pass up)

2 comments:

  1. How about baboons, think it is very fitting.

    a congress of baboons.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love that. It's not in the tourist vein, but good enough to add to the list...

    ReplyDelete