V is for

vulture.

We've been doing a "Letter of the Day" every day to help practice ABCs with Spud. Today is "V" and so we were looking at pictures of vultures online. This is a King Vulture. Definitely the coolest looking vulture I've ever seen.

I've found my ideal job...

From this article

Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who studies laughter, notes that dogs pant in a certain way when they're playing, and rats are known to chirp.

So he thinks the roots of laughter might go even further back and would like to see more studies like this one that compare different animals' playful sounds.

"I think that it's about time we get out there, start tickling the dogs and the cats, and the pigs, the rats, as well as the chimpanzees," Provine says. "I think we'll learn a lot about what we have in common, as well as our differences."

Can't you just see me as an Animal Tickler?

antidisestablishmentarianism

I remember as a kid this was the longest word in the English language, but I don't think it is anymore. The kids are watching the cartoon A Pup Named Scooby Doo and it was the featured word on a game show. I wonder what the longest word is now. Whatever it is, English words can't hold a candle to German words when it comes to general length. Germans just stick several words together. I can't find my German-English dictionary, but here are a few words quickly chose out of a German textbook Vocabulary list:

die Gewerkschaftssekretaerin - union secretary
die Riesenschlange - python
die Nierenentzuendung - kidney infection
der Jugendherbergsausweis - owner/manager of a youth hostel
das Lebensmittelgeschaeft - grocery store
die Kopfschmnerztablette - headache pill
die Unterrichtsveranstaltung - organizing of a class
die Stirnhehlenentzuendung - frontal sinus infection
die Muskelschmerzen - muscle pain
das Meinungsforschungsinstitut - opinion research institute

I guess that's enough. So rather than have word phrases, Germans just make looong words. Which is pretty cool, considering when saying the words you also have to have a plenteous supply of phlegm.

But in all honesty, I love the German language. In high school I purposefully chose it rather than French or Spanish because French was too romantic and Spanish was too common. It served me well, as I got a two week, all expenses paid trip around Germany when I was 16, and then did a semester abroad in Austria when I was 20. I also got to be a student secretary in the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages for nearly 3 years. Though now I'd like to learn Spanish because it is so useful, and French because it's fun to say only half the letters when you pronounce words.