Hiya Skeleton Crew,

I’m tryna think of a good movie to show at the theater for Thanksgiving weekend. Any ideas? Right now I’m pencilled in for a back-to-back of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles & Babette’s Feast. Y’know, soften ’em up with a li’l buddy comedy, then knock ’em out with a delicate rumination on the nature of artistry & the relationship between the numinous & the corporeal. That classic one-two punch!

Trivia 1

Guano’s the poop of birds & bats, but of course lotsa animals—near ALL of ’em, I’d venture to say!—poop. Ya got your scat, your dung, your droppings, those are pretty commonly used for all sortsa different animals. But there are some more specialized terms out there, too! Like there’s fewmet, that’s a fun word (also spelled fumet but that’s less fun), it means a deer’s droppings.¹ Oh, & there’s spraint, apparently that’s a word we have specifically for OTTER poop for some reason?

There’re also a variety of not-technically-poop-but-let’s-call-’em-poop-ADJACENT excretions, stuff like the frass of wood-boring insects, or owl pellets—or what pungent excretion of sperm whales that’s not TECHNICALLY poop but does (as far as I can tell) get pooped out their butts.² Also, it’s crazy expensive & is super important for makin perfumes.

Trivia 2

In my “let’s find out different words for poop” research, I was surprised—& frankly disappointed—to find out that there ain’t a special word for the cube-shaped poop of what animal?

I mean, seriously?? I feel like Australian scientists are really droppin the ball here!!³

¹ I think once-upon-a-time it meant the poop of ANY game animal, but after a while the definition kinda just converged on deer. ⬏

² Some folks seem to say it gets vomited out? There’s some ambiguity on the Internet here. If I had to put money on it, my guess is it can come out either end ... but I ain’t gonna go out to find out first-hand! ⬏

³ Or ... I guess I mean droppin the cube? They’re sure as heck droppin SOMETHING, that’s for sure!!! ⬏