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Apr 19, 2018
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LitBits
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I enjoy Paul Whybrow's posts for the things I learn — especially words that may be familiar but are new for me. I've been around a long time. As a young man I spent a lot of time browsing around in dictionaries, looking up this word or that and the etymologies that went along with them. But I find that I have lately grown unaccustomed to encountering brand-new (to me) words. So it is with delight that I learn that a clowder of cats is a group of them — if there really is any such thing. I had thought of cats as solitary beings, as in "like a one-eyed cat looking in a seafood store." I have also learned that among falcons there is one variety known as a kestrel, and that a dongle is computer-speak for an auxiliary device. Hoo-hah, Paul. Keep 'em coming!
 
I sometimes wonder if any intelligence I have is merely a repository of largely useless and obsolete information—the scrapings from the bottom of the oven!

On the subject of groups of cats, did you know that a congregation of kittens, born of one mother, is called a 'kindle'? This isn't the inspiration for the Kindle ereader, which comes from the old Norse word for setting something alight.

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