(Incidentally, if there's a prize for pet marketing, I'd like to nominate whoever changed ''Mongolian desert rat'' to ''gerbil.'' That's even better than ''compassionate conservative.'') — Randy Cohen
It's a smaller achievement, but kiwi is definitely an improvement on Chinese gooseberry. I'd have sworn that the uglifruit started out with a much duller name, but a fast googling doesn't turn up anything.
While I was in Mongolia, I watched a couple of small children playing with something that was probably some subspecies of gerbil. They treated it like a toy, putting in in a small stream and watching it swim, over and over until I encouraged them gently to let it go. Not only was it cruel, but they were putting the thing in the family water supply. And plague is endemic to Mongolia, in marmots at least. And the most common casualties are small children playing with dead marmots (and perhaps other rodents as well).
There's a theory that the Black Plague originated in Central Asia, and was carried by the Mongol Horde to Syria, where it spread across to Venice. My favorite going to the hospital shirt is my "Celebrating 650 years of Bubonic plague" with a picture of a rat in a party had with a little party blower in its mouth. Needless to say, I did not take this shirt to Mongolia with me.
Whee! Aren't we cheerful this morning! I guess you can't take me ANYWHERE!
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Mongolian Desert Rats
There's a theory that the Black Plague originated in Central Asia, and was carried by the Mongol Horde to Syria, where it spread across to Venice. My favorite going to the hospital shirt is my "Celebrating 650 years of Bubonic plague" with a picture of a rat in a party had with a little party blower in its mouth. Needless to say, I did not take this shirt to Mongolia with me.
Whee! Aren't we cheerful this morning! I guess you can't take me ANYWHERE!
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Also, "Plague Marmots" is such a great band name.