Thursday, July 23, 2015

Kick 'em Jenny erupts

No joke: Kick 'em Jenny has erupted and those in the underwater volcano's vicinity have been put on high alert:
As a result of the increased activities, the Government of Grenada has issued an alert to all maritime interests to strictly observe the Kick 'em Jenny Volcano Exclusion Zone of five kilometres around the summit of the volcano.
I have no doubt that this is a serious matter, but I am foundering and chortling in some juvenile thought-bubble-gum that wonders how/why scientists -- whom I blithely feel are far from playful or imaginative -- should have conceived and then allowed to take root a name that might as easily be found in a giggly children's adventure tale.

Was the namer inebriated at the time? And were his or her companions who no doubt had to concur in the baptismal name for a geological feature likewise squiffed? I really would like to know, but knowing or not-knowing does not lessen my playful pleasure in the name itself.

1 comment:

  1. When i was at university, before leaving to be a hippy, friends whose father was a scientist burst the bubble that scientists were horn rimmed, lab coated, bastions of seriousness. Their father had written an important tome on limnology. I was assured that scientists worse shorts and flip flops while telling fart jokes. They asserted that this was universal in their experience of their fathers colleagues.

    ReplyDelete