That Old Chesnut: I'm still going to call them buffalo

Guys, you know what is a fun word? BUFFALO. It is silly. And so are the animals! I mean these guys:

They are like bros at the gym who only lift weights on the upper half of their bodies.

But no! Did you know that you have been calling these fellows buffaloes all of your life, but they are NOT (scientifically speaking) actually buffaloes. Nay, they are BISON. Surely you are familiar with this term, but you probably like me either thought it was interchangeable with "buffalo," or didn't care if it was inappropriate to use with the American bison because it is fun to say. But in fact, buffalo refers to various oxen-type animals living in Eurasia and Africa. Maybe people in North America wanted to pretend that bison were totally just like other buffaloes so they wouldn't feel so bad about this. Though there are also European bison that look at lot like the American kind and are called wisent.*

Does anybody else feel like this is a little bit racist?

But so the word buffalo's origins! I know you are all deeply invested in etymologeez, which is why you read That Old Chesnut so voraciously,** so I have consulted the OED (which I won't bother linking because if you don't have a subscription through a university library or you are so nerdy you have paid for a personal one, you cannot actually access it). But you can believe me that I am faithfully reporting to you that "buffalo" came into English by way of Greek, Latin, and ultimately probably Portuguese to mean a type of antelope or any wild ox basically. So technically speaking, that should extend to American bison because what is it but a big bovine thing? But so water buffalo (domesticated and wild), the anoa or dwarf/midget buffalo (not so PC, science), and probably some other animals are actually buffalo, while bison are not.

To review:

Don't worry, I still love our fake American buffalo, and will continue to call them that. But I'll know the truth, and so will you. Now go be one with this. You're welcome.

*Also the name of a Polish vodka flavored by bison grass. I believe I drank it in some sampler flight at Moscow on the Hill once and was like, "Not so much on this one."
**Haha, just kidding, I know people only come here to read energy drink reviews or that classic Andrew Jackson presidential post. Or you read Captain Awkward. Sweet, wonderful, wise Captain Awkward. Or you're looking for Sexy Gay Jesus porn. Sadly, you will have to make your own, but could you please let me know when it happens?

Film Discussions and Goings-On

Ben Stein would tell you that the Nazis liked strudel, which is pretty much the same as pie, so modern pie-bakers are Nazis. I'm looking at you, Mom.

Now that the internet is running at my house, here I am blogging at work. Because homework is dumb and I'm tired of reading about the First Amendment. I have to say that my job here at the pop culture library is awesome. Besides being a long-time library nerd who loves books and archives and putting things in alphabetical and/or call number order, this place has tons of awesome shit in it. Sometimes I'm filing old movie press kits from the '60s. Other times I'm helping catalog scanned pdfs of 1890s nickel weeklies that feature the serial adventures of the handsome hero (and Yale alumnus) Frank Merriwell. Always getting into scrapes, that one. Today I was helping file some non-sport trading cards. And while I was amused at the 1970's pre-Garbage Pail Kids Wacky Packages, I must say the best things I found were cards put out by Full Moon Entertainment for classic films like Trancers II starring a pre-Mad About You Helen Hunt and 1992's Chucky-ripoff Demonic Toys. Which led me to the many fine titles produced and/or distributed by Full Moon, a flurry of excitement, and the Netflix ordering by Isaac of Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust. OMG so excited! Speaking of terrible movies, we recently-ish rented Ben Stein's Expelled which you can just google yourself. I knew it would be bad, yes. However, I thought it would just be full of mistruths and religious rabblerousing, but little did I know that I would find it patently offensive. And not just because "intelligent design" is not science and is just Jesus wrapped in dinosaur wrapping paper, but because Ben Stein was like, "Hey, why don't I go to Auschwitz and talk about how the Nazis used Darwinian theories to justify their torturous science experiments?" And while that could be an interesting movie in itself, he was drawing a clear line between modern evolutionary biologists, universities, journals, and other scientific institutions who reject the Jesus people's claims about ID (All the kids are calling it that. Or they would be if they were ever allowed to their home school classrooms and make friends.) with Nazis and eugenecists. Ummm, saying your theory lacks scientific rigor and rightly pointing out that it is a thinly-veiled attempt to teach bible-y things in public schools is really nothing at all like genocide. Nothing. Maybe Ben Stein thinks that because he's Jewish he can call people he disagrees with (though careful not to do it so many words) Nazis. I mean, some scientists become atheists, so that must mean science is godless, and so is Communism, also Nazis. Except for that the Nazis had all sorts of crazy religious beliefs, as documented in this book that I read in an awesome religious studies undergrad class. Anyway, Ben Stein is an asshole. Even if he does have an amazing deadpan delivery and apparently knows everything in the world except for how science works. We had to watch, like, four or five Gilmore Girls episodes to wash the taste of that horrible movie out of our souls. I guarantee that Passion of the Crust will have more of a scientifically legitimate leg to stand on than that shit.