Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Afrcia* (for Africa, African, etc.)


Perhaps you were expecting something nice about turkeys, or the pleasant holiday that those of us in the United States will celebrate tomorrow?  Well, today’s critter is frankly just a whole lot more fun to contemplate.  Several years ago, there was that viral video.  You know the one.  "Honey badger don’t care, honey badger don’t give a s_ _ _!”  Please don’t watch if bad language isn’t your thing, and even if you liked it, also check out this fascinating and entertaining segment of Nature entitled “Honey Badgers: Masters of Mayhem.”  In it you will discover that “honey badger” is synonymous with “tenacity.”  So much so that in South Africa, the Afrikaans name for this tough guy—Ratel—has also been used for one of that country’s armored military vehicles.  Fortunately, today’s typo isn’t nearly as persistent.  There are only 4 instances of Afrcia* in the OhioLINK catalog and 122 in WorldCat.


(Honey Badger (perhaps enjoying Thanksgiving dinner?) from Wikimedia Commons)

Deb Kulczak
 

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