shibboleth

me: his name is ponder.
them: ponder? huh, like ponder stibbons?
me: yes.
them: what...ohhh! we get it! we get it! ponder GIBBON!
me: a-hah! that's what you're meant to think, but he's not a gibbon becos gibbons are monkeys, whereas he has no tail so he's an ape!
them: but in that case why didn't you call him the librarian?*
me: because then i won't get to have this conversation!

if you have had this conversation with me before, you're definitely a friend of mine and sorry you had to have that conversation. if you have never had this conversation with me but understood it perfectly, why aren't you a friend of mine? if you don't understand the above, what on earth are you waiting for? read pratchett. shoo.

*hey! there's a gorilla librarian in one of the monty python and the flying circus episodes. bet you anything pratchett knew about it, although when i looked on the annotated files this was not mentioned.