The pun, of course, turns on the concept of the collective noun, the term used to refer to a group of particular animals or things - in this case, a murder of crows. We also refer to a pride of lions, a pod of whales, and a parliament of owls. You can read Grammar Girl's article on collective nouns here, and a related Wikipedia article here.
Collective nouns can, of course, lend themselves very well to jokes and satire. Here are a few ...
A windbag of political commentators;
A circus of Congressmen;
A no of Republicans;
A dither of Democrats;
An archive of librarians;
A fleet of runners;
A flight of escapees;
An annoyance of cell-phone users; and,
A durante of toucans (clever!).
What are your suggestions for good, descriptive collective nouns? Add your suggestions to the comments.
Right now, I need to get ready to go to work so that I can spend time supporting a pomposity of executives.
Have a good day, individually and collectively. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
4 comments:
A constipation of administrators.
A titter of breasts.
A spam of e-mails.
A din of garbage cans.
A Bag of Teapartiers!
A parliament of owls. Or, a hoot of owls.
A crock of toilets.
A drool of drunkards.
I can't think of anything. I have a derth of ideas.
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