Thirthy-three Names of Things You Never Knew had Names:

1. AGLET-The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.
2. ARMSAYE-The armhole in clothing.
3. CHANKING-Spat-out food, such as rinds or pits.
4. COLUMELLA NASI-The bottom part of the nose between the nostrils.
5. DRAGÉES-Small beadlike pieces of candy, usually silver-coloured, used for decorating cookies, cakes and sundaes.
6. FEAT-A dangling curl of hair.
7. FERRULE-The metal band on a pencil that holds the eraser in place.
8. HARP-The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.
9. HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVER-A 64th note. (A nd is a demisemiquaver, and a 6th note is a semiquaver.)
10. JARNS,
11. NITTLES,
12. GRAWLIX,
13. and QUIMP-Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.
14. KEEPER-The loop on a belt that keeps the end in place after it has passed through the buckle.
15. KICK or PUNT-The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles. It gives added strength to the bottle but lessens its holding capacity.
16. LIRIPIPE-The long tail on a graduate's academic hood.
17. MINIMUS-The little finger or toe.
18. NEF-An ornamental stand in the shape of a ship.
19. OBDORMITION-The numbness caused by pressure on a nerve; when a limb is 'asleep'.
20. OCTOTHORPE-The symbol '#' on a telephone handset. Bell Labs' engineer Don Macpherson created the word in the 960s by combining octo-, as in eight, with the name of one of his favourite athletes, 9 Olympic decathlon champion Jim Thorpe.
21. OPHRYON-The space between the eyebrows on a line with the top of the eye sockets.
22. PEEN-The end of a hammer head opposite the striking face.
23. PHOSPHENES-The lights you see when you close your eyes hard. Technically the luminous impressions are due to the excitation of the retina caused by pressure on the eyeball.
24. PURLICUE-The space between the thumb and extended forefinger.
25. RASCETA-Creases on the inside of the wrist.
26. ROWEL-The revolving star on the back of a cowboy's spurs.
27. SADDLE-The rounded part on the top of a matchbook.
28. SCROOP-The rustle of silk.
29. SNORKEL BOX-A mailbox with a protruding receiver to allow people to deposit mail without leaving their cars.
30. SPRAINTS-Otter dung.
31. TANG-The projecting prong on a tool or instrument.
32. WAMBLE-Stomach rumbling.
33. ZARF-A holder for a handleless coffee cup.

Now write a story using all of these terms :)

As a follow-up to my post on songbirds learning grammar, comes this: ABC interviews chimps.

Interestingly, I once read a National Geographic article (I think it was in the early 1990's) in which a researcher described a single conversation (in American-Sign-Language) between 3 species: a human, a gorilla, and a chimpanzee. Here's an excerpt from the ABC article:

The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, is home to seven bonobos -- a close relative of the chimpanzee -- and three orangutans. But if you think Iowa might be a strange place for them to live, don't say it out loud ... these apes understand English.

You can talk to the apes, and they know what you are saying.

The residents of the Great ApeTrust are part of groundbreaking language research where the apes are being taught to communicate with humans by pressing 350 lexigrams —symbols that appear on a screen and represent thoughts and objects.

The superstar is 26-year-old Kanzi, whom Bill Fields has been working with for years. To communicate, Fields speaks to Kanzi, who then points to the lexigrams to respond and demonstrate a level of understanding.

"Qualitatively, there is no difference between Kanzi's language and my language," Fields said. "It's a matter of degree."

The key to ensuring they grasp the language, the researchers said, is to start teaching them when they are young, just like you would with human babies.

In that National Geographic article, I remember the researcher also reportedly asked the chimpanzees which type of music they preferred, and they responded "Jazz".

Some of the chipanzees described in the article even made up new compound words, such as combining the word "Candy" and "Drink" to describe grape juice as "Candy-Drink".

Cool stuff...