(no subject)

this week...

I accidentally stepped on a bumblebee as I was walking. I felt something buzzing under my shoe, and hurriedly lifted my foot. Then I looked down at the poor thing, and felt bad, as it looked mortally wounded to me, yet I couldn't bring myself to kill it. It happened right outside my place of work, and I felt like I was being watched.

A coworker said "Excuse me, sir" to me, as I rounded a corner and we passed each other. I was tickled by it, and replied, "Thanks!". My hair isn't even short right now. And I believe I've interacted with him at least once before, so we aren't total strangers. I suspect the long shirt I was wearing threw him off.

I sort of "came out" as an androgyne to 2 people on my team while we were light-heartedly chatting after a meeting. One of them referred to me as a "brooding woman" (I had earlier mentioned that I was brooding on a problem), and I blurted out something like "don't call me a woman". In retrospect, I should have instead said that I prefer not being called a woman. But anyway, then I had to explain about my gender identity being neither man nor woman. Saying that I was an androgyne felt slightly ridiculous, like saying I was from outer space*. And I noticed that the word androgyne is hard to say; it doesn't come fluently off my tongue. I was smiling as I spoke, trying to treat it sort of like a joke. But the co-worker that had been talking to me was nevertheless at a loss for words for a couple of minutes. I hope they don't think I'm crazy now.

(* - The co-worker initially replied "andra-what?!!" What is *that*??)

bumf

The A Word A Day email for April 1 of this year contained the word "bumf": "Unwanted or uninteresting printed matter such as governmental forms, legal documents, junk mail, promotional pamphlets, etc." After reading the etymology of the word("Short for bum fodder, slang for toilet paper. Earliest documented use: 1889."), I thought that this must be an April Fool's Day joke, and that bumf could not possibly be a real word that had been in use since 1889.

But there was no subsequent admission of a joke having been played, so today I looked up the word, and was surprised to find that bumf is a real word, in the dictionary! It was originally a slang term, but still, it was not a joke.

I wonder how many other real things happen on April first, that people don't take seriously because they think it is a joke.