"muggles?" Come On, People!!

4.7k · May 12, 2004

around me for 30 feet is a cute-free zone. i'm allergic to cute. trendy gives me hives.

the only place i want to read about muggles is in a harry potter context.

i have some thoughts as to why using "muggle" in this case bothers me so much, but as of yet they haven't coalesced into anything useful. it has something to do with arrogance, though. kind of along the lines of "people who do not play our sport are muggles".

i do not play soccer nor do i ride a motorcylce, yet soccer players and motorcycle riders i know have not called me a muggle. maybe this weekend i'll go to my race venue and start referring to non-racers as "muggles" and see if anyone starts backing slowly away.

or hang out at the gym and call people without their own climbing harnesses "muggles". i will do this slyly, and as if i know something they do not. maybe i will point and giggle at people who do not have little round hats and see if i get punched in the teeth.

2.6k · May 12, 2004

If you don't like the word muggle, you can always use the word jästi.

2k · May 12, 2004

Point 1)

It's all about the covert nature of the game. Soccer players, motorcycle riders, and even rock climbers practice thiere sport/hobby/activity out in the open for all to see. If discretion (-1 geo points for a spelling error.) were not practiced in the geocaching world the instance of muggled, err a sorry, vandalized caches would increase.

Point 2)

Every activity has its own nomenclature. Lawyers don't understand engineers who don't understand accountants. Every thing any of these groups has to say could be stated in plain language. They still have thier own terminology.

Point 3)

If you don't like cute terms maybe a more adult oriented activity might be better suited to your life style. Geocaching is a family oriented activity. In general Kids, Moms and Dads like cute.

1.3k · May 13, 2004

How did a word where the first three letters mean "to beat someone up and take their money" become cute?

Is "mugger" cute? "Muggle" is "Mugger" without the "r" and a spare "l" thrown in just for the "l" of it.

I always wondered where strange laws, political correctness, and half of the insanity my human resources department keeps sending me originates. Now I know. We live in a society that's so domesticated that simple words cause people stress.

Just a few generations ago our ancestors were hunters and sailors and explorers. They risked danger and risked their lives so that their descendants could be traumatized by a 6 letter word.

Singing:

He drive his jeep. He rides his bike.

He searches in the flowers.

He puts on muggle clothing

And hangs around in bars?!

24.7k · May 13, 2004

Evil is Live spelled backwards. No wonder so many people are afraid to truly live. The taint haunts them.

May 13, 2004

<snip>Is "mugger" cute?<snip>

I think I am, even if I must say so myself

May 13, 2004

We live in a society that's so domesticated that simple words cause people stress.

Just a few generations ago our ancestors were hunters and sailors and explorers. They risked danger and risked their lives so that their descendants could be traumatized by a 6 letter word.

Dude, please. Just a few generations ago, our ancestors were sticking each other onto crosses and pikes for believing (or not believing) that some long-dead guy was "God" or "of God", or for following simple rituals like dunking your face in water, or drinking wine and calling it blood.

Humanity has been splitting hairs with language for thousands of years. By and large, people are much more egalitarian about the use of words than they have ever been--rashes of imbecilic political correctness notwithstanding.

Would you prefer that the average person be traumatized by disease, hunger, or rapine? You say domesticized, I say civilized, and I'm glad of it.

4k · May 13, 2004

They say to-MAH-to, I say to-MAY-to....and lots and lots of other words that I've learned from bathroom walls, truck-drivers, and drunken sailors (my ex-wife brought them home all the time).

9.4k · May 13, 2004

We live in a society that's so domesticated that simple words cause people stress.

Just a few generations ago our ancestors were hunters and sailors and explorers. They risked danger and risked their lives so that their descendants could be traumatized by a 6 letter word.

Dude, please. Just a few generations ago, our ancestors were sticking each other onto crosses and pikes for believing (or not believing) that some long-dead guy was "God" or "of God", or for following simple rituals like dunking your face in water, or drinking wine and calling it blood.

Humanity has been splitting hairs with language for thousands of years. By and large, people are much more egalitarian about the use of words than they have ever been--rashes of imbecilic political correctness notwithstanding.

Would you prefer that the average person be traumatized by disease, hunger, or rapine? You say domesticized, I say civilized, and I'm glad of it.

I think the point went flying waaaaay over your head.

Why are we splitting hairs over a word when there are far worse things that could plague us?

Is that a bit clearer for you?

May 13, 2004

Why are we splitting hairs over a word when there are far worse things that could plague us?

because its a nice safe place for trolling on a stupid topic

4.7k · May 13, 2004

Why are we splitting hairs over a word when there are far worse things that could plague us?

a nice, lively debate about something that doesn't matter beats reading the news.

incidentally, instead of listening to the news, i am listening to the harry potter books on tape. i'm happier that way.

and if you're having a lively debate about something that doesn't really matter, you can use all kinds of snippy little comments which you might want to avoid if it really mattered.

If you don't like cute terms maybe a more adult oriented activity might be better suited to your life style. Geocaching is a family oriented activity. In general Kids, Moms and Dads like cute.

parenthetically, i'm a little taken aback to be told that i should take up a different activity since geocaching is family oriented. i think there's some debate on that point. last time i checked, geocaching was family friendly, but not family oriented. i think this mean that adults are permitted to play in an adult fashion, but not in a way inappropriate for children. this is an important distinction.

if you like cutte things, you are welcome to them. you may not force them on me any more than i may force you to take your kids to scuba caches. to suggest that one group of people or one point of view has more legitimacy than another separates rather than brings us together.

although i loathe pink sparkly things, i have seen the unmitigated joy on a lttle girl's face to find them in a cache, so i'm happy to see a wide assortment of caches and cache contents.

If you don't like the word muggle, you can always use the word jästi.

my command of finnish is poor. i'm afraid to ask.

May 13, 2004

I think the point went flying waaaaay over your head.

Why are we splitting hairs over a word when there are far worse things that could plague us?

Is that a bit clearer for you?

You're missing my point. We split hairs over trivial things because we have the time, safety, leisure, and interest to do so--all good things, and positive developments for mankind.

If you are going to pass judgements on whether something is worthwhile discussing or spending time on, fine, but you'd better realize that all such judgements are arbitrary, even if some appear more objectively supportable than others. You say, "Don't fritter away your time on this topic, when we could be discussing proper rehiding ettiquette." Then someone else says "How can we keep diddling ourselves with this rehiding ettiquette nonsense when people are plundering our caches!" Then that person is trumped by someone saying "I can't believe people are getting so worked up about the occasional plundering when most geocaches still aren't wheelchair accessible!!" Then the pastor's wife from the Simpsons runs in and screams "WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!!" Then we all sit in a circle, feeling guilty.

It's a whole I'm-more-serious-and-caring-than-you-are Ponzi scheme, and I think it's pointless. When Abraham Lincoln was shepherding the country through its most challenging time, and dealing with the weightiest issues imaginable, he took all the time he could spare to be frivolous and light-hearted. My dad survived starvation in Amsterdam in WWII, cancer at 55 and triple bypass surgery at 65, lived to be 78, and what I remember and cherish most about him was not that he battled his hardships with courage and determination (though he certainly did), but that he placed the highest value on laughing and being silly.

So all of you cluckers and tskers can wallow in gravitas until it you're caked in it, then strut around like you've just said something important. I'll continue to be serious about my triviality. Is that clear to you?

May 13, 2004

Hey everybody, I cannot believe how out of hand this has become. Who cares what words we use to describe people who do not cache. I do however believe that this is not a sport for just anyone. You must have a sense of adventure, a willingness to turn off the TV and go outside, the desire to stay healty and teach our children that there is a world out there beyond the TV. Geocaching has become to me a way of life. When I am not working I am caching, and when I am not caching I working. So I think all of us here, who have learned how to cache, brushed up on ther land nav skills, put other and more important purchases aside(Like food and rent) just to purchase that new GPS that has 5000mb of memory and can jump start your car in the winter, have EARNED the right to call people who decide that cachers or caching is stupid, or boring or just plain choose not to do it *Muggles*.

please don't flame me, just my opinion.

P.S. My 60cs is coming soon, can't wait....

Oh ya, check out this sight...Muggle Humor

May 13, 2004

Not being a watcher of Harry Potter, I have no problem using 'muggles' as a reference to non-geocachers. It's just a convenient term to use. (I did have to ask a fellow geocacher what the heck a muggle was when I first saw it used in an online log! )

May 13, 2004

2 entries found for rube.

An unsophisticated country person.

n : not very intelligent or interested in culture [syn: yokel, hick, yahoo, hayseed, bumpkin, chawbacon]

I think I found another good word to use for those that don't like "muggle"...

but now I might have just ticked off some small town bumpkin.

Edited May 13, 2004 by Kitch

2k · May 13, 2004

...

If you don't like cute terms maybe a more adult oriented activity might be better suited to your life style. Geocaching is a family oriented activity. In general Kids, Moms and Dads like cute.

parenthetically, i'm a little taken aback to be told that i should take up a different activity since geocaching is family oriented. i think there's some debate on that point. last time i checked, geocaching was family friendly, but not family oriented. i think this mean that adults are permitted to play in an adult fashion, but not in a way inappropriate for children. this is an important distinction.

Good point, so does that means a term can/should be excluded?

if you like cutte things, you are welcome to them. you may not force them on me any more than i may force you to take your kids to scuba caches.

I don't think anybody is forcing you to use any particular term. (Would we have to give the kids scuba gear?)

to suggest that one group of people or one point of view has more legitimacy than another separates rather than brings us together.

Acceptance of a term in common usage by a large percentage of the community would bring us closer together as well.

although i loathe pink sparkly things, i have seen the unmitigated joy on a lttle girl's face to find them in a cache, so i'm happy to see a wide assortment of caches and cache contents.

...

My only child is grown, so the first time I took a kid caching was with my sisters kids. Pink and sparkly describes my niece, she really lit up when we opened the cache and there was a sheet of pink Barbie stickers. That was one of the best finds ever.

4.7k · May 13, 2004

Good point, so does that means a term can/should be excluded?

nope. you're welcome to use terms that make me feel embarrassed on your behalf. when people around me roll their eyes, i'll just shrug as if you were a backward cousin of mine who didn't know any better.

Acceptance of a term in common usage by a large percentage of the community would bring us closer together as well.

i don't think i have to tell you that this is bad reasoning. i'm sure you'd thought it out already.

My only child is grown, so the first time I took a kid caching was with my sisters kids. Pink and sparkly describes my niece, she really lit up when we opened the cache and there was a sheet of pink Barbie stickers. That was one of the best finds ever.

i'm not sure what you're trying to say here. i'm in favor of loathsome pink sparkly things in caches. i'm not sure if you're agreeing with me or you just didn't read carefully.

22k · May 13, 2004

2 entries found for rube.
An unsophisticated country person.

n : not very intelligent or interested in culture [syn: yokel, hick, yahoo, hayseed, bumpkin, chawbacon]

I think I found another good word to use for those that don't like "muggle"...

but now I might have just ticked off some small town bumpkin.

That would be me.

I prefer local yokel, thank you very much.

9.5k · May 13, 2004

...and what I remember and cherish most about him was not that he battled his hardships with courage and determination (though he certainly did), but that he placed the highest value on laughing and being silly.

So all of you cluckers and tskers can wallow in gravitas until it you're caked in it, then strut around like you've just said something important. I'll continue to be serious about my triviality. Is that clear to you?

So Barnstable,

I'm very curious. Where did you let go of this very important value and take up the cause to eliminate the usage of a silly word in a game we're supposed to have fun in? I'm somehow reminded of Farenheight 451 and (generally speaking) feeling like I'm being told what is and isn't appropriate to be used.

If you choose not to use it... OK. If you choose to use it... OK. But why go after change just because you think it's inappropriate to be used? No matter what word you come up with to use, if it isn't invented and universally accepted, it is borrowed. Most terminology and references today don't reinvent words to convey a meaning unless it comes down to that's the only way. Most of the time, terminology is borrowed because it has a universal meaning at that time of usage and doesn't take much to explain it. IF I have to use an invented word to identify people not cognitive of geocaching, then I probably won't use it. It takes too much time to explain it. Muggle is a universally accepted term (whether you like it or not) that most people can use which very importantly identifies very quickly what you are saying with little or no explanation involved.

To extrapolate another reader's response about Mug in Muggle... does that mean I'm a Con because I get the CONception of an idea? No more than MUGgle means being a Mug or being Mugged. Most words in the English language will have familiarity with prefixes and suffixes. That doesn't mean it shares the same definition. It depends entirely on its accepted usage. Fag in the USA doesn't mean cigarettes like it does in the UK. But it is an accepted use... not politically correct in the USA, but still acceptable because it is universally used for slurs... but wait... it also means:

A student at a British public school who is required to perform menial tasks for a student in a higher class.
A drudge.

Chiefly British. Fatiguing or tedious work; drudgery.

v. fagged, fag·ging, fags

v. intr.

To work to exhaustion; toil.

To function as the servant of another student in a British public school.

v. tr.

To exhaust; weary: Four hours on the tennis court fagged me out.

But is it used for that? Not likely because of the way the word is accepted for usage. Acceptance is the key. I can come up with several other instances of words that are used to describe actions and objects. Some are offensive, some are not. Some I just don't care to use, others I will.

Use your own term without campaigning to cause others to use it with you. Don't lose patience if you find you have to explain that term time and again because people don't understand your reference. And oh by the way, wherever you lost that value of silliness... I sincerely hope you find it again. You're taking life way to seriously when muggle bothers you that much in this sport of geocaching.

2k · May 13, 2004

Good point, so does that means a term can/should be excluded?

nope. you're welcome to use terms that make me feel embarrassed on your behalf. when people around me roll their eyes, i'll just shrug as if you were a backward cousin of mine who didn't know any better.

Acceptance of a term in common usage by a large percentage of the community would bring us closer together as well.

i don't think i have to tell you that this is bad reasoning. i'm sure you'd thought it out already.

Let me re-state, then perhaps the reasoning will become clear. Mockery and critisism will not bring us closer together. Acceptance of others differences will.

My only child is grown, so the first time I took a kid caching was with my sisters kids. Pink and sparkly describes my niece, she really lit up when we opened the cache and there was a sheet of pink Barbie stickers. That was one of the best finds ever.

i'm not sure what you're trying to say here. i'm in favor of loathsome pink sparkly things in caches. i'm not sure if you're agreeing with me or you just didn't read carefully.

I should have explictly stated this was a side comment. Sorry.

Edited May 13, 2004 by rusty_tlc

2.6k · May 13, 2004

To extrapolate another reader's response about Mug in Muggle... does that mean I'm a Con because I get the CONception of an idea?

No, but you sure do put FUN in fundamentalism.

May 13, 2004

...and what I remember and cherish most about him was not that he battled his hardships with courage and determination (though he certainly did), but that he placed the highest value on laughing and being silly.

So all of you cluckers and tskers can wallow in gravitas until it you're caked in it, then strut around like you've just said something important. I'll continue to be serious about my triviality. Is that clear to you?

So Barnstable,

I'm very curious. Where did you let go of this very important value and take up the cause to eliminate the usage of a silly word in a game we're supposed to have fun in? I'm somehow reminded of Farenheight 451 and (generally speaking) feeling like I'm being told what is and isn't appropriate to be used.

If you choose not to use it... OK. If you choose to use it... OK. But why go after change just because you think it's inappropriate to be used? No matter what word you come up with to use, if it isn't invented and universally accepted, it is borrowed. Most terminology and references today don't reinvent words to convey a meaning unless it comes down to that's the only way. Most of the time, terminology is borrowed because it has a universal meaning at that time of usage and doesn't take much to explain it. IF I have to use an invented word to identify people not cognitive of geocaching, then I probably won't use it. It takes too much time to explain it. Muggle is a universally accepted term (whether you like it or not) that most people can use which very importantly identifies very quickly what you are saying with little or no explanation involved.

To extrapolate another reader's response about Mug in Muggle... does that mean I'm a Con because I get the CONception of an idea? No more than MUGgle means being a Mug or being Mugged. Most words in the English language will have familiarity with prefixes and suffixes. That doesn't mean it shares the same definition. It depends entirely on its accepted usage. Fag in the USA doesn't mean cigarettes like it does in the UK. But it is an accepted use... not politically correct in the USA, but still acceptable because it is universally used for slurs... but wait... it also means:

A student at a British public school who is required to perform menial tasks for a student in a higher class.
A drudge.

Chiefly British. Fatiguing or tedious work; drudgery.

v. fagged, fag·ging, fags

v. intr.

To work to exhaustion; toil.

To function as the servant of another student in a British public school.

v. tr.

To exhaust; weary: Four hours on the tennis court fagged me out.

But is it used for that? Not likely because of the way the word is accepted for usage. Acceptance is the key. I can come up with several other instances of words that are used to describe actions and objects. Some are offensive, some are not. Some I just don't care to use, others I will.

Use your own term without campaigning to cause others to use it with you. Don't lose patience if you find you have to explain that term time and again because people don't understand your reference. And oh by the way, wherever you lost that value of silliness... I sincerely hope you find it again. You're taking life way to seriously when muggle bothers you that much in this sport of geocaching.

Clearly, I haven't expressed myself very well to some of you, or for whatever reason we are not connecting. I've enjoyed the give and take in this thread; I've appreciated the posts of those who disagree with me, and have noted many times that they seem to be in the majority. I've even chuckled at some of the wittier fun-poking at my expense, and you can read my replies to prove this.

If there is an aspect of this thread I don't like, it's the posts that belittle me or other posters for thinking the topic worthy of discussion, or that, like yours does, draws conclusions about my emotional makeup. Though, now that I think of it, you may have a roundabout point: since trying to peer into someone else's head is the height of silliness, I should be enjoying it rather than being put off by it (I'll have to mull that one over a bit...).

So please, spare not one more ounce of your sincere concern over my too-serious life. Just to lighten the mood: giraffe walks into a bar and says, "Hey, everyone, the highballs are on me!"

3.9k · May 13, 2004

So you're saying we should start calling people "Highballs" instead of "Muggles?"

9.1k · May 13, 2004

So you're saying we should start calling people "Highballs" instead of "Muggles?"

The answer depends on the muggle's height, as well as the ambient air temperature.

EDIT: The muggle's gender is also highly relevant.

Edited May 13, 2004 by The Leprechauns

May 13, 2004

So you're saying we should start calling people "Highballs" instead of "Muggles?"

The answer depends on the muggle's height, as well as the ambient air temperature.

EDIT: The muggle's gender is also highly relevant.

I don't know if I want to be yelling Highballs in some of the places that I have geocached!! :unsure:

May 13, 2004

At this point in the discussion, I think it is incumbent upon me to update the short list of contenders for the "muggle" throne:

Of my original suggestions, it seems that IGBYs (Ignorant Bystanders) had the best response (though hardly thunderous approval). Then along came NORMs, which I quite like.

To these two, I would like to add a new one I thought of this weekend while on a 5-cache trip. I had to wait at two of the caches for the coast to be clear, and I found myself muttering "#%$@# non-cachers" sneeringly under my breath a few times. But "non-cachers" is a long word to use as a derisive, so I was not satisfied.

Suddenly, it hit me: NONCs (or NONKs), short for non-cachers! It even sounds right--a little dim, a tad loutish perhaps. And it derives directly from the original term we were all using when this Geocaching thing started.

So there they are, pretenders to the throne: IGBYs, NORMs, NONCs.

Any takers? Summary rejections? Withering Asides?

This is a great topic! Communicative evolution in the making!

I too think of muggle as only a drug term: http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclopedia/muggles

I thought the joke was that it was a geo "stash". <snicker> Duuuuddde!

I'm the third person in the world who hasn't read Harry Potter and now that I know that's where the term came from, that IS kind of hokey. Now I feel silly saying it. (Although being "muggle-jumped" DOES sound pretty funny!)

and muggles also sounds like Mugwump, immortalized and reinvinted by William Burrough's Naked Lunch.

BUT, I'm all for using something new! We've only been using it for a short while. It's not too late! What's wrong with thinking up something cooler!

So here goes my assessment of the options so far:

IGBY -Sounds like a british waiter.

Noncs - just doesn't roll off the tongue for me. Too many "n"s.

Norms - makes me think of the chuch of the subgenius. norms and pinks. corny cool in a nerdy old school eighties way. but still doesn't feel right.

rube - rubed also doesn't roll of the tongue. sounds too much like rubbed or robbed. also it's too, too ...from a thesaurus.

Clams - this has to be my favorite so far. I can't remember what it stands for, but who cares. I like that it stands for something unlike muggle. but there's more meaning to it too. clams are slimy, stupid and slow like non-cachers milling around. If a cache is clamed, you could think of it as being stolen by a clam, which is a funny picture. Also, you "clam up" when the clams come around so they don't suspect you're looking for or placing a cache. See, I'm using the term already!

So my vote is for CLAMS!

until someone comes up with something cooler, i'm going to start using this today! The infiltration begins!

All a ya'll muggle people are SOO going to date yourselves by saying muggle!

yo, what up, clams?

9.1k · May 13, 2004

Sorry, but "Clams" won't work, because it's already taken. If I am hunting a very well-done cache, and a muggle walks into the area, the last thing I want to say is "clams." It conjures up images of Des Palourdes Mortes and it would be an insult to say this in the vicinity of a nice geocache.

May 13, 2004

Sorry, but "Clams" won't work, because it's already taken. If I am hunting a very well-done cache, and a muggle walks into the area, the last thing I want to say is "clams." It conjures up images of Des Palourdes Mortes and it would be an insult to say this in the vicinity of a nice geocache.

well, that was fast.

shot down by an obscure reference.

whatever.

you too, will eventually be assimilated ... by the CLAMS!! :unsure:

May 13, 2004

I have met all sorts of folk while geocaching - hunters, fishermen, hikers, cops, firemen, and introduced them to the game. I talk to most everyone I meet. If I am walking down a forest trail I will speak to everyone I pass. Often we get into conversations. Often they express interest, and often have I taken them with me to find the cache. Most were never heard from again, but some have joined our association. The important part is that I have never had someone reveal or go back and tamper with a cache.

GeoRose and I met a young man out with his 10-year-old sister in a local park Friday. We explained the game, showed them basic GPS functionality, handed her the GPS and said "lead us to the cache!" She did and had a ball. She understands that she can tell her friends that she got to find something hidden in the park but not where it is, and I think she'll stick to that. I heard from the brother Sunday - he bought a GPS so he can cache on a class trip to Greece this summer!

I wanted to park in a Fire Station to search for a cache by a nearby river, and went in to ask permission to park - the Fire Captain was very interested in GPS for his airplane - he and a lady paramedic spent an hour hiking with me to the cache...I never even got to hold the GPS!

Obviously there are folks you can't trust, and generally they're pretty easy to spot.

Last month in Tennessee a group of teens (long-hair, too young for the cigarettes they were smoking and skateboarding behind a shopping center at 10pm) watched two Suburban-loads of us in a Cache League team pull up to a light-pole micro; eight people jumped out, wandered around in plain sight 20' from them, found it, signed it and sped off - we just knew they'd have it muggled before we were out of sight - they never touched it, or if they did the rehid it - it's still in good shape.

My point is that we shouldn't be afraid of everyone we see. Over a lifetime of camping and outdoors activities I have found that outdoorsmen are, as a whole, great people. I guess that in urban areas bums might wander the parks, but down here I have yet to meet a bum hiking!

Please consider muggles as opportunities to meet new friends and introduce new cachers!

See you on the trails,

Ed

I don't know. I wish we lived in a loving world where you could trust everybody. You take a gamble everytime you're frendly. and you have to ask yourself if it's worth it to get the cache clamed. We were out caching in San Francisco and we couldn't find the cache. A night watchmen came up to us and asked us what we were up to and we told him about what we were doing and invited him to help us find it. He had a great time and even broke out a bottle of wine for the occasion (he was off duty, come to find out). A buddy of his came over too and also was looking. long story short, we found the cache that night. But it was clamed a couple days later. I remember the guy joking when we put a dollar in there, that he knew where he could get some money for coffee. You just never know.

2.2k · May 13, 2004

i've had one cache muggled. what made it even worse, was that it had been placed in memory of my oldest brother. i used the word muggle before i ever heard of geocaching. for me it means people who have no imagination. it's as good a word as any and it fits the activity of caching. if someone comes up to me and says they had a cache clamed, pictures of seafood restaurants will start forming in my mind. yum!!!

9.5k · May 14, 2004

If there is an aspect of this thread I don't like, it's the posts that belittle me or other posters for thinking the topic worthy of discussion, or that, like yours does, draws conclusions about my emotional makeup. Though, now that I think of it, you may have a roundabout point: since trying to peer into someone else's head is the height of silliness, I should be enjoying it rather than being put off by it (I'll have to mull that one over a bit...).

So please, spare not one more ounce of your sincere concern over my too-serious life. Just to lighten the mood: giraffe walks into a bar and says, "Hey, everyone, the highballs are on me!"

Now don't take offense. I'm merely debating with you and making you think in different perspectives.

Look at it this way:

In one breath you mention your father valued silliness and laughter and in the next, you announce your seriousness over a triviality.

I merely pointed out the inconsistency of using your father's values in one hand and your being serious about this triviality in the other hand.

A another way of saying the same thing is... "Huh?" in Tim Allen's Tool Time grunt.

Now if you were being silly it was missed due to the lack of smilies. However you wish to view it, based on your style of debate in this thread, you should have expected some sort of response or you wouldn't have put it there in the first place.

May 14, 2004

Well its Officially in the Urban Dictionary Now!!!!!

CLICK HERE

9.5k · May 14, 2004

ROFLMAO - I'm voting for it.

May 14, 2004

I personally like the term "muggle." When my cousins got me involved in Geocaching almost a year ago, I had not even pondered what the term meant, nor had I even heard of it. I just thought it was a great way to describe me about 30 seconds before they handed me a GPS to find my first cache. This thread has made me laugh outloud at the responses. Whether or not we all agree on the term, we should all remember one thing: we are all active members of a Geocaching community. I could care less if we call them clams, rubes, etc. In the end, does it really matter? In reading the draft definition of "muggle," I was surprised to see a portion of the definition that pretty much describes non-geocachers: "...a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way." While I do not agree 100% with the word "inferior" in relation to our use of the word, I do think the definition describes non-geocachers fairly well.

(excerpt from BBC news report)

The draft definition according to the dictionary's website says:

Muggle: invented by JK (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling (b. 1965), British author of children's fantasy fiction (see quot. 1997).

In the fiction of JK Rowling: a person who possesses no magical powers. Hence in allusive and extended uses: a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way.

The dictionary is being updated for only the third time in 146 years. It's quite unusual for a living fiction writer to have one of their words included.

But an OED spokesperson told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper they included "muggle" because it was being used everyday by so many people all over the world.

May 14, 2004

Now don't take offense. I'm merely debating with you and making you think in different perspectives.

Look at it this way:

In one breath you mention your father valued silliness and laughter and in the next, you announce your seriousness over a triviality.

I merely pointed out the inconsistency of using your father's values in one hand and your being serious about this triviality in the other hand.

A another way of saying the same thing is... "Huh?" in Tim Allen's Tool Time grunt.

Now if you were being silly it was missed due to the lack of smilies. However you wish to view it, based on your style of debate in this thread, you should have expected some sort of response or you wouldn't have put it there in the first place.

Gotcha. And I agree. Pops and my idea of fun when I was younger was to find some obscure philosophical point, take random sides, and then hurl invective at each other for an hour or so. I can remember going toe to toe at the top of our voices, then one of us seeing a funny-looking dog or something, and we would both laugh and talk about that for a bit. Then we'd start yelling at each other again.

So I guess I can appear stressed and serious when I'm actually having a great time. Somehow, knowing that a discussion topic is not all that important frees me up to get nice and worked up over it. For me, seriousness over a triviality IS silliness--there's no inconsistency there at all.

On another topic, where did you buy those bizarre art cards?

1.8k · May 14, 2004

Gotcha. And I agree. Pops and my idea of fun when I was younger was to find some obscure philosophical point, take random sides, and then hurl invective at each other for an hour or so. I can remember going toe to toe at the top of our voices ...

Ahh, the joys of childhood. Debating philosophy and yelling invectives at good ol' dad. hehehe ... Oh, to be young again.

9.5k · May 14, 2004

So I guess I can appear stressed and serious when I'm actually having a great time. Somehow, knowing that a discussion topic is not all that important frees me up to get nice and worked up over it. For me, seriousness over a triviality IS silliness--there's no inconsistency there at all.

On another topic, where did you buy those bizarre art cards?

That explains a lot and clarifies your "stance" even better.

As for the cards, my bro-in-law was collecting them and gave them to me for a birthday present many moons ago. I'll check and see if he has any pointers.

9.4k · May 14, 2004

Clams in any context other than its original definition looks like someone misspelling claims.

Edited May 14, 2004 by Jeremy

1.8k · May 14, 2004

Clams in any context other than its original definition looks like someone misspelling claims.

Yeah, and I claim clams gave me the cramps while I was at camp.

May 14, 2004

Speaking of Muggles, has anyone planned a "Tri-Cacher Cup Tournament"?

BTW, I guess I'll clam to have come up with that idea myself... my wife doesn't want any credit/blame for it at all.

4.7k · May 14, 2004

Sorry, but "Clams" won't work, because it's already taken. If I am hunting a very well-done cache, and a muggle walks into the area, the last thing I want to say is "clams." It conjures up images of Des Palourdes Mortes and it would be an insult to say this in the vicinity of a nice geocache.

well, that was fast.

shot down by an obscure reference.

whatever.

you too, will eventually be assimilated ... by the CLAMS!!

it is NOT an obscure reference. it is well known to many of us. and it's useful, too. it leads to log entries like "it's not quite midnight, but the clams have spoken to the choreographer and they're not feeling very well."

please continue to use the term "muggle" in any context you like. my friends and i will be standing off to one side, pointing and giggling, just as if you drove by us with an "oliver north for president" bumpersticker.

now if you'll excuse me, i have to go listen to some harry potter books on tape.

edit: i'm not telling you why i edited. go ahead. suspect me of subversive motives.

Edited May 14, 2004 by flask

9.1k · May 14, 2004

it leads to log entries like "it's not quite midnight, but the clams have spoken to the choreographer and they're not feeling very well."

That *ROCKS*, thank you for the laugh.

Or....

"Nocturnal terpsichorian necrotic mollusk activity was observed. Thanks for the cache."

Edit: Only Flask knows why.

Edited May 14, 2004 by The Leprechauns

9.4k · May 14, 2004

it leads to log entries like "it's not quite midnight, but the clams have spoken to the choreographer and they're not feeling very well."

That *ROCKS*, thank you for the laugh.

Or....

"Nocturnal terpsichorian necrotic mollusk activity was observed. Thanks for the cache."

Edit: Only Flask knows why.

I love it! (then again, engineers dig that kind of humor)

May 14, 2004

Removed potentially offensive post.

Edited May 14, 2004 by Mastifflover

May 15, 2004

I like "Plastics"... I will use "Plastics" if its ok to quote Barnstable... for some reason it makes me think of ... "Summerpeople and some are not!" a quote from my youth when I was a Cape Codder... now I am a midwestcapecoda... just my thought for the evening...

May 15, 2004

I like "Plastics"... I will use "Plastics" if its ok to quote Barnstable... for some reason it makes me think of ... "Summerpeople and some are not!" a quote from my youth when I was a Cape Codder... now I am a midwestcapecoda... just my thought for the evening...

I wouldn't use "Plastics".... just kinda sounds fake to me :lol:

May 17, 2004

Thanks to everyone for their comments (and jokes and gibes) so far on this topic. I've decided to go with NONCs (rhymes with 'bonks"), mostly because I like the way it sounds, and because it derived directly from the original term we all used, non-cachers.

For me, the cost of having to explain myself occasionally will be more than offset by the satisfaction of using what I consider to be a superior word. And if this word is adopted by others, so much the better.

BTW, for the person who suggested we use the term "highballs," in your honor I plan to shout out that term in the middle of the woods during my next hunt.

1.8k · May 17, 2004

Pssst Barnstable ... let this thread die. Thank you.

2.3k · May 17, 2004

MUGGLES MUGGLES MUGGLES MUGGLES MUGGLES

24.7k · May 17, 2004

Thanks to everyone for their comments (and jokes and gibes) so far on this topic. I've decided to go with NONCs (rhymes with 'bonks"), mostly because I like the way it sounds, and because it derived directly from the original term we all used, non-cachers...

Non cachers is so final. It's like you can't change their mind. It captures the wrong element of what makes a muggle a muggle. A muggle can be converted. But in the end if you use Nonc here is how it will read in the geocaching dictionary. "Nonc: See muggle."

The lexicon is what it is. Every now and then someone hits a home run with a word that is needed but most of us have no more sway than if we were to try to stop the tide.

"muggles?" Come On, People!!

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