"Exciting news" (again). New portfolio page???????????

[Richard Whitcombe]

Whenever i get an email that says "Exciting news" i know its either going to be bad news and/or require unwanted extra work at my end.

[AKaiser]

On 11/15/2019 at 11:09 PM, stevemart said:

Parliament of owls!

That is so very cool! Love them all!  (I definitely need a book on that!)
In German, we basically name groups of animals by what they actually act like. Predators hunting together would be a "Rudel" (like wolves or lions), "flying" critters would be a "Schwarm" (birds, insects or even bats) and everything else would qualify as a "Herde" (like sheep, cows and alike). The only "special" word I'm aware of is "Rotte", which only applies to wild boar, as far as I know. 
Do you Brits/Americans have a group word for squirrels, too??!
There're at least three of them around my studio and we feed them. I'd tend to call them a "Rudel", as they rather act like predators than, say, ... sheep. *g *Incredible* what they keep carrying away!! I guess, by the end of this winter they'll drop off their trees. Just because of being - as my friend Wilm put it in a similar case: too fat!
I'll pick them up, though, and get them back home.

[James R Poston]

1 hour ago, AKaiser said:

Do you Brits/Americans have a group word for squirrels, too??!

@AKaiser We mostly call them "tree rats" or rodents.

[Linda Bestwick]

3 hours ago, AKaiser said:

That is so very cool! Love them all!  (I definitely need a book on that!)
In German, we basically name groups of animals by what they actually act like. Predators hunting together would be a "Rudel" (like wolves or lions), "flying" critters would be a "Schwarm" (birds, insects or even bats) and everything else would qualify as a "Herde" (like sheep, cows and alike). The only "special" word I'm aware of is "Rotte", which only applies to wild boar, as far as I know. 
Do you Brits/Americans have a group word for squirrels, too??!
There're at least three of them around my studio and we feed them. I'd tend to call them a "Rudel", as they rather act like predators than, say, ... sheep. *g *Incredible* what they keep carrying away!! I guess, by the end of this winter they'll drop off their trees. Just because of being - as my friend Wilm put it in a similar case: too fat!
I'll pick them up, though, and get them back home.

LOL, I have funny visions of you rescuing fat squirrels now! A group of squirrels are called a scurry or dray. I think scurry is better!

 

[stevemart]

3 hours ago, AKaiser said:

That is so very cool! Love them all!  (I definitely need a book on that!)
In German, we basically name groups of animals by what they actually act like. Predators hunting together would be a "Rudel" (like wolves or lions), "flying" critters would be a "Schwarm" (birds, insects or even bats) and everything else would qualify as a "Herde" (like sheep, cows and alike). The only "special" word I'm aware of is "Rotte", which only applies to wild boar, as far as I know. 
Do you Brits/Americans have a group word for squirrels, too??!
There're at least three of them around my studio and we feed them. I'd tend to call them a "Rudel", as they rather act like predators than, say, ... sheep. *g *Incredible* what they keep carrying away!! I guess, by the end of this winter they'll drop off their trees. Just because of being - as my friend Wilm put it in a similar case: too fat!
I'll pick them up, though, and get them back home.

Linda already found it!

A scurry of squirrels ........similar to German as it does describe their action. There may be other words and I've only looked at collective nouns starting with 's' as the collective noun is often alliterative.

There's quite a long list of collective nouns here:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_collective_nouns_by_collective_term

Here's a few I picked out:

conflagration of arsonists
cornucopia of slugs
fixie of hipsters
herd of asses
implausibility of gnus
intrusion of cockroaches
lamentation of swans
marvel of unicorns
shuffle of bureaucrats
snatch of pickpockets
superfluity of nuns
tassel of strippers
unkindness of ravens
illusion of painters
neverthriving of jugglers

[Wilm Ihlenfeld]

5 hours ago, AKaiser said:

That is so very cool! Love them all!  (I definitely need a book on that!)
In German, we basically name groups of animals by what they actually act like. Predators hunting together would be a "Rudel" (like wolves or lions), "flying" critters would be a "Schwarm" (birds, insects or even bats) and everything else would qualify as a "Herde" (like sheep, cows and alike). The only "special" word I'm aware of is "Rotte", which only applies to wild boar, as far as I know. 
Do you Brits/Americans have a group word for squirrels, too??!
There're at least three of them around my studio and we feed them. I'd tend to call them a "Rudel", as they rather act like predators than, say, ... sheep. *g *Incredible* what they keep carrying away!! I guess, by the end of this winter they'll drop off their trees. Just because of being - as my friend Wilm put it in a similar case: too fat!
I'll pick them up, though, and get them back home.

You have forgotten the "Schule" (= school) of wales or dolphins, the "Flug" (=flight) of doves or partridges, the "Kolonie" (=colony) of badgers, the "Sippe" (=tribe?, clan?) of mice and rats, the "Trupp" (=troop) of skylarks,  the "Bukett" (=bouquet) of pheasants and the "Wurf" (=litter) of cats and dogs. 

You seem to to be surrounded by a very nutritious environment. A lot of "Sippen"/tribes seem to enjoy the proximity to you. I can send new squirrels to you, when yours have fallen - we've got 8 in the garden and don't need all of them.

[Sari ONeal]

3 hours ago, stevemart said:

marvel of unicorns

Uh-oh, that's gonna  be competing with the clowder of cats for the 1st place now! 😮

[paula french]

Or a 'crash of hippos' - I can certainly understand why that was given.

Even better confusion' of wildebeest

[chyworks]

On 11/16/2019 at 6:09 AM, Maurice James Dawson said:

Most outside Britain don't get British humour there are so many things that have to do with wordplay. Take for example 'Fawltey Towers. There is of course the original, the Americans tried to do a remake which is completely crap as they can't copy British humour. Actually when I moved to the Netherlands we had Monty Python's on Dutch TV I would be laughing my head off and my Dutch family just didn't get it although they spoke perfect 'school' English.

Fawlty Towers was once popular here in Asia too. More for mature audience. Mr. Bean is even more popular as the target audience is all ages.

Anyway, we had a young local intern who worked for an English title in the previous (publishing) company i worked for. She speaks in posh English accent at work. 

One day, the editor asked the intern if anybody who talk with her ever ask about her accent? As it really sounded quite... different. Here we speak everyday English or Manglish. Her answer was that she has always speak in that accent ever since she learnt English. She told the editor that during her time studying in the UK. She learnt MOST things about British, the food, the people and it’s culture. 

Her bravery... 😅

[AKaiser]

9 hours ago, Linda Bestwick said:

LOL, I have funny visions of you rescuing fat squirrels now! A group of squirrels are called a scurry or dray. I think scurry is better!

 

Hahahaaa! This is sooo hilarious! The crocodile ...! *Rolling* OFL has never been as precise as in this case.  

"Scurry" is absolutely perfect! YET. Looks like mine are going through the most peculiar transformation from a scurry to a shower of squirrels then. *g
I wish I was a British native speaker! Those are so much more creative than what we have in German! Although Wilm's of course right - there may even be a couple more.

[Helen Hotson]

Great, 'exciting news' always makes me want to hide behind the sofa.