Monday, April 06, 2009

Wonderful News for the Media Studies Department

The Titanic at SouthamptonImage via Wikipedia

After frank and candid discussions with a gaggle of deans, I have decided to continue as chair.

Let is be stipulated that I am no longer pissed with anybody, a state of mind that ill befits a first among equals.
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4 comments:

John McChesney-Young said...

You are too good for them, and I hope your agreement stipulates fresh rose petals strewn in your path from the edge of campus to your office and back. A litter surely wouldn't be amiss.

But are you sure that "gaggle" is the best choice for a collective noun for deans? Sources on-line suggest "decanter/decorum," "muddle," "dither," and "delay" or "gripe." If none of those seems quite right, perhaps (for those other deans of course, not you) "sounder"?

....J.Michael Robertson said...

A sounder of wild boars.

Learning this justifies everything that has gone before the acquisition of this fact. No pain, no gain.

John McChesney-Young said...

You might enjoy this discussion of the relevant section of The Book of St. Albans, the earliest surviving English codification of collective terms of venery; the section on swine begins here. Michael Quinion has a good brief piece on collective nouns too.

....J.Michael Robertson said...

The section on swine begins here: a phrase of infinite application.