New-to-me Phrases, November 5, 2023
Crowvember * Poop juice * State tartan * Croiffle * Hairy-faced floofenchops waddle chicken * Mount Mountain * Corn sweats

The Phrases, With Context
It’s a new month, how did we get here? I don’t know but I will say that where I live we are having one of the most vibrantly colored autumn seasons I think I’ve ever seen. I’m into it!
This week we have another themed month (yay!), some fun bird stuff, poop chute maintenance, weird state pride stuff, and more. Let’s get to it!
But first, poll results!
And . . . we have another double-tie situation:
This means I’m going to just do a poll for the winner between the two tied for first. You know what to do—stop the madness and fight for your fave:
1. Crowvember
I think I’m becoming a person who enjoys a pun about the current month. More on that further down in this week’s edition.
My friend Mike pointed me to this word on BlueSky, which is still invite-only (HMU if you need an invite code). BlueSky is a decent Twitter alternative that feels very much like OG Twitter to me, although admittedly I don’t spend much time there. I’m becoming less emotionally tolerant of “firehose of information” social feeds.
An artist called Green (they/them) decided to draw a crow a day in November. Each day has a theme, like “American Crow,” “Fish Crow” or “Hawaiian Crow” (which I did not know existed!).
As a massive (but apparently fairly ignorant) fan of corvids, I am here for this! Other artists are joining the fun, like Ciaraioch (links to Insta, for those not on BlueSky). If you’re an artistic type, free to do the same. If you’re not, have fun reading up on the various varieties of corvids, which include crows, ravens, and jays. Highly recommend the gorgeous book Bird Brains by Candace Savage to learn more—although that’s an older book and the science has likely evolved since its publication.
Related: Animals love my husband. In fact, everyone loves my husband. Seriously. Even our axolotl, Mimi freaks out with joy when she sees him (to be fair, he’s the one who feeds her). Anyway, after years of me (possibly definitely over-enthusiastically) trying to woo our neighborhood crows, my husband has finally managed to win them over. Now they land on the back fence and caw at him for peanuts.
2. Poop juice
This is the nickname I gave to my husband’s ginormous jug of disgusting clear liquid he had to consume before getting a colonoscopy. #IYKYK
3. State tartan
While researching state birds (as one does) to determine the exact number of states that claim the Northern Cardinal as their state bird (SEVEN, in case you were wondering), I noticed a listing of “state tartan” and had to dig into why.
Sadly, the reason appears to be pretty banal—to honor Scottish heritage in a particular state—and the adoption of official state tartans is pretty recent, starting in the late 1980s. Meh.
However, my ADHD hyperfocus wormhole was NOT for naught:
I also rediscovered what is quite possibly the only cool fact about my home state: The state fossil of Illinois is the Tully monster, a mysterious aquatic creature that was one foot long (!!).
I feel a real kinship with this one.
4. Croiffle
A croiffle is a portmanteau of croissant and waffle, where you press croissant dough in a waffle iron. I’d try it. Croiffles are currently popular in South Korea topped with brunost, a salty-sweet Norwegian cheese. Entrepreneur Jeonmi Eom, known as Brown Cheese Lady, has helped drive the brunost craze in her country. By partnering with a major Norwegian cheese producer, Eom’s company snagged a licensing deal and opened three signature cafes devoted to brunost. (via Atlas Obscura)
5. Hairy-faced floofenchops waddle chicken
This was a richly descriptive comment on an Instagram post by Kākāpō Recovery, a New Zealand government conservation effort dedicated to protecting these flightless indigenous round bois. If you click through to that post, you’ll notice that this comment perfectly describes the Kākāpō. 🟢
I’ve written about these Muppet-like birds before, and once again I will direct you to the Shagged by a Rare Parrot video, which is always worth a re-watch even if you’ve seen it before.
6. Mount Mountain
My husband and I recently watched Deadloch on Amazon Prime. It’s a very weird and very funny (LOL = Lots of Lesbians) sendup of crime shows set in a fictional town in Tasmania. There’s also this distinctive sense of anger roiling beneath the surface of the storytelling that I don’t think I’ve seen before.
If you haven’t seen it, you have to give it a couple of episodes to really get what they’re doing. h/t to
’s Culture Study discussion threads for this rec by multiple enthusiastic fans. I really hope there’s a season 2.Here’s a great write-up in Vanity Fair: Deadloch is the Feminist Crime Parody You Didn’t Know You Needed
Some important plot points happen at a site named Mount Mountain, which is 100% made up, along with several other place names (here’s a Reddit post listing many of them). This reminded me of one of my very favorite places in Colorado, State Forest State Park. If you want to escape the hordes of people at Rocky Mountain National Park and the Front Range in general, State Forest State Park is your place to commune with nature of the non-human kind.
Is there a State Park State Park anywhere? I hope so1.
Bonus: Another great phrase from this show was oyster cloister. I found a script online, so here’s the bit of dialogue where it came from:
Sven, yelling at a crowd of people eager to share tips with the police: “One at a time! One... Just one at a time, please! Please, if you have information about the murders I can take your statement in the privacy of the Oyster Cloister. Or, if you prefer, you can just write a note, and put it in the anonymous tip-off koala.”
Honestly, I think both oyster cloister and anonymous tip-off koala are pretty great.
7. Corn sweats
Did you know that corn produces enough moisture to increase the humidity regionally? Now you do. Known as “corn sweat,” I far prefer the phrase “corn sweats,” as it implies that you ate so much corn that it gave you the sweats.
It could happen: The official snack of Illinois is popcorn. I’ll give it a try when I go see The Marvels this month. 🍿
There’s a joke to be made that I am this state’s official snack, but I’m not going to make it.
Bonus Bits
A follow-up from a recent newsletter: I, a weirdo, emailed Dr. Motion to let them know that they missed an opportunity to do Toevember after their Socktoberfest campaign. Maybe Kneecember for an end-of-year knee-high socks campaign? (Good thing I don’t work in marketing2!) They wrote back and said they’d pass my idea on to the marketing team. Is that code for “I will delete your email?” I guess we’ll find out next November!
Hawks from the side vs. from the front (Instagram)
People who don’t drink: What are y’all doing on the weekends? Accurate. (Instagram)
Consider donating to World Central Kitchen, an org that does the vital work of getting food and water to the people of Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, and other communities in need.
That’s it for this week! Remember to stay furiously curious.
Apparently not; somebody make this happen.
I totally work in marketing