Saturday, May 10, 2008

Winkled Center

I am delighted to report that from now on I will be the Van Winkle Professor of Sociology. I promised the dean I would not become deadwood.

My mother pronounced it a Ripping development.

My beloved little sister, by contrast wrote: *snort* you said "winkle."

The dictionary says a winkle is any one of various marine spiral gastropods, especially, in the United States, either of two species of Fulgar (F. canaliculata and F. carica).

"To winkle out" is to get the truth out of someone without waterboarding (more or less).

Mr.Winkle.com claims he is the Cutest Dog in the Universe!

The most famous Van Winkle is a fictional character.

The most famous real Van Winkle is, alas, Vanilla Ice.

We have only begun to explore the comic possibilities of this title.
Suggestions welcome.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! What a delight to have a named professorship - and yet a name that prevents a person from becoming pompous over it.

Anonymous said...

i think the winkled center will need a few wee winkle tinkle devices... obviously needed in any household.

www.weewinkletinkle.com

Gruntled said...

Thank you for the lovely suggestion. I think.