Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Is this a diagnosable and potentially treatable condition yet? And if so is it on the rise? Asking because I think a friend might have contracted it, and I'm wondering whether or not they're alone, and what I can do about it. Are there therapy groups to hand? Groups where like minded birders can still understand what each other are on about by saying things like:-
"You know, the one with the dark crown, whatever it's called these days", or "the southern version, whatever you might want to call it" or "You know, the one that last month was called this, but last year it was called that, and depending on what book you've got it's called this or that, or it might not be called that because some people don't like it being called that, although others do, and it doesn't matter what you call it because next week it'll probably be called something else anyway... by some people, but maybe not by the person standing next to you who spots one flying by."
Speaking as someone who has spent most of my life delighting in learning a whole load of bird names, including even a decent chunk of scientific binomials (the understanding of them enriched by me having learnt a bit of latin at school), I've reached the point now where I simply can't keep up without my brain exploding. What must it be like for casual nature-loving people who aren't obsessed by avian taxonomy and linguistics and have an even worse memory than me? 🤯.
What's the point? Am I still expected to believe that at some point it will stabilise and everyone will all agree to call things by the same common names and/or scientific names? Or are more and more of these names just going to continue to change at an ever accelerating rate, as appears to be happening with no end but n sight? Some people are now finally agreeing to split things that other people have now agreed to lump that they agreed to split only a few months ago, and still people are arguing over what to call them to make it more accessible and understandable to "the people"🤣🤣.
Of course it's complicated, and of course it's always going to be changing, but trying to pretend it's actually helpful to get people to engage more with wildlife by naming things appropriately is just a ludicrous joke when you consider that any layperson could look up a scientific name or a common name and come up with progressively more and more options as to what on earth that name might actually mean in terms of a taxon.
Is anyone else experiencing nomenclature burnout? And if so what sedatives do you recommend?
"You know, the one with the dark crown, whatever it's called these days", or "the southern version, whatever you might want to call it" or "You know, the one that last month was called this, but last year it was called that, and depending on what book you've got it's called this or that, or it might not be called that because some people don't like it being called that, although others do, and it doesn't matter what you call it because next week it'll probably be called something else anyway... by some people, but maybe not by the person standing next to you who spots one flying by."
Speaking as someone who has spent most of my life delighting in learning a whole load of bird names, including even a decent chunk of scientific binomials (the understanding of them enriched by me having learnt a bit of latin at school), I've reached the point now where I simply can't keep up without my brain exploding. What must it be like for casual nature-loving people who aren't obsessed by avian taxonomy and linguistics and have an even worse memory than me? 🤯.
What's the point? Am I still expected to believe that at some point it will stabilise and everyone will all agree to call things by the same common names and/or scientific names? Or are more and more of these names just going to continue to change at an ever accelerating rate, as appears to be happening with no end but n sight? Some people are now finally agreeing to split things that other people have now agreed to lump that they agreed to split only a few months ago, and still people are arguing over what to call them to make it more accessible and understandable to "the people"🤣🤣.
Of course it's complicated, and of course it's always going to be changing, but trying to pretend it's actually helpful to get people to engage more with wildlife by naming things appropriately is just a ludicrous joke when you consider that any layperson could look up a scientific name or a common name and come up with progressively more and more options as to what on earth that name might actually mean in terms of a taxon.
Is anyone else experiencing nomenclature burnout? And if so what sedatives do you recommend?
