It’s no surprise that I love words, and I truly love the English language. Lately, I’ve especially enjoyed learning what different groups of animals are called, such as a prickle of hedgehogs. What fun it was to learn that a group of baboons is called a congress of baboons.

How Utterly Apropos!

I also love the word apropos, which means appropriate or to the point. You can’t really say it normally because it seems to inherently sound pretentious. “How apropos,” I say with my eyes half-closed, eyebrows raised, and my nose up. Maybe I even sip a cup of imaginary tea after saying it. Nomenclature, which is the assigning of names, is another word (found in this post’s title) that feels pretentious to me. Perhaps I am just being preposterous (preposterous definitely belongs in the pretentious word category).

A group of baboons being called “a congress” is so utterly fitting. The media has convinced me (we are so easily manipulated) that our actual US Congress may be made up of baboons, though that might be insulting to baboons. We tend to use the word baboon as synonymous with a foolish or stupid person, but in the wild (not in Congress), a baboon is actually quite an intelligent creature.

A Sucker Punch Is Coming…

Baboons live in packs, communicate through calls, and are capable of adapting quickly to changing conditions. They play with objects, learn words, and even seem to mourn the deaths of their friends. Their intelligence is likened to that of a 3-year-old human child, which, according to a lot I have been reading in the media, is more than can be said of some senators.

Oooh…the crowd goes wild as Editor Nancy delivers a sucker punch to politicians!

*A sidenote of gratitude for the people who serve our country’s interests in the political realm with integrity, decency, and maturity. Instead of a baboon, I’ll compare you to a unicorn, and when there is a bunch of you, the collective way to refer to you is this: a blessing of unicorns. How lovely!