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When revising, it is important to look at each sentence for subject-verb agreement. This is one of those skills that comes naturally over time. 

Have I confused you yet? We all know the collective noun for a group of birds of any type is called a flock.

Many of you might have heard of a murder of crows, or a gaggle of geese…but what else is out there? What other old terms, perhaps used for centuries and now mostly forgotten, lurk in dusty dictionaries and little viewed academic webpages?

I saw the most amazing video posted on facebook this afternoon of a murmuring of starlings. I’d never heard that term before, and it got my brain zipping about with story ideas. Of course I wondered what ELSE might be out here. So to increase your knowledge, and sometimes make you giggle, here are some other collective nouns for birds.

• Chickens- a peep of chickens
• Cranes- a herd of cranes
• Crows- a murder of crows
• Doves- a flight of doves or a dole/dule of doves
• Ducks- a badling of ducks or a raft of ducks
• Goldfinches- a charm of goldfinches
• Geese- a gaggle of geese or a skein of geese
• Guinea Fowl- a rasp of guinea fowl
• Hawks- a cast of hawks or a lease of hawks
• Lapwings- a deceit of lapwings or a desert of lapwings
• Larks- an exultation of larks
• Nightingales- a watch of nightingales
• Owls- a parliament of owls
• Parrots- a pandemonium of parrots
• Ravens-an unkindness of ravens
• Starlings- a murmuring of starlings
• Swans- a game of swans or a wedge of swans
• Teal- a spring of teal

Neat isn’t it? There are more of course… and I’ll not even get started on animals… at least not today!

However… what about our supernatural beings? There is a kiss of vampires… but what else? What are your favorite collective nouns?

I had a great time at MAIN STREET BOOKS in St. Charles, Missouri today, signing copies of HAMSTER HOLIDAYS as well as DOGGIE DAY CAMP, KITTY KERPLUNKING (also from the Pet Grammar Parade series) and GIFTS FROM GOD as well.

Gayle Jacobson-Huset, Fiction & Poetry Editor for STORIES FOR CHILDREN MAGAZINE, said, "I give this book [HAMSTER HOLIDAYS] a high five for the excellent learning tools Author Cynthia Reeg has included to make learning so much fun, and for the colorful, kid-friendly illustrations by Kit Grady. This book is definitely a keeper!"

I wanted to share the lovely interview HAMSTER HOLIDAYS received at Armchair Interviews.com.

HAMSTER HOLIDAYS: NOUN and ADJECTIVE ADVENTURES is here!!!

It's been a busy summer already. Just returned from an international trip--I'll share some photos later. But I didn't want to miss the opportunity to tell you the good news.

I’ve decided that I’m against ‘em. Ugly, nasty, smelly! Too hideously leaden and concrete. I’m done with them. Pronouns, however, are absolutely fine.¹ From now on you must write without them!

1. Yes, I’m aware that “pronoun” is a noun. What of it?

Hey!

Spending much time checking out the Internet, sifting through all the chaff could make you senile. So, when we started La Bloga we intended it not only to focus on Chicano literary themes, but also to strive for higher standards than a typical blog, by our "passionate" (see Laínez's post from yesterday) understanding of cultural distinctions. As example of the type of site we didn't want, one recently came to our attention and warrants comment, given its topic.

On 12/15/06 Manuel Ramos's post introduced Rudolfo Anaya's The First Tortilla: A Bilingual Story. The blurb quoted publisher UNM Press: "She [Jade] has made the first tortilla." It also mentions a Mountain Spirit and talking hummingbirds. Sounds like a fantasy, folktale or leyenda, right?

In our 7/18/07 review of The First Tortilla, Bloguista Gina MarySol Ruiz wrote: "Rudolfo Anaya has written a magical and lovely folktale about the origins of that favorite of us mexicanos/Chicanos, the delicious tortilla." Note her use of "folktale" and "the origins of the tortilla."

When the editors of Guanabee read our review, they remarked: "Finally, a role model for young Mexican girls that doesn’t ask them to sell out so damn hard… but make tortillas instead?" While their first remark may or may not be commendable, it is the "make tortillas instead" that begs literary interpretation.

That anyone, Latino-oriented or otherwise, could misconstrue a folktale about the first tortilla as somehow advocating that contemporary, young Mexican girls should make tortillas instead of aspiring to other (unnamed) activities, indicates either a low level of vocabulary or deliberate misinterpretation.

Using Guanabee logic, we'd expect their editors to review Little Red Hen and the Grains of Wheat and vilify its author(s) for advocating that young females take up bread making instead of other (unnamed) activities. Or perhaps they think the authors of another old story, about Adam and Eve, didn't want 21st century females eating apples.

A folktale about the distant past or a fantasy world, with talking hummingbirds or hens (or serpents), should not be interpreted as providing lessons or role models, solely based on the plot. Guanabee editors seemed to understand part of that. It's the part they didn't that separates Guanabee from La Bloga.

If we read further into the post: "Bless Me, Ultima, the novel that taught us Mexicans/vomiting can be literary motifs", one wonders what they consider to be rational critique. Characterizing Anaya's recognized classic in this fashion seems like a shallow way to artificially create controversy. In their own words, "Guanabee is commentary on media, pop culture and entertainment, spicy coverage for the Latino in you."

Now, I don't know about you, but the Latino in me prefers that spicy coverage not approach the abyss of Fox-TV standards of verity. Guanabee is a commercially supported site, filled with "ads by Google" and other business interests, including Fox (by chance?), so perhaps the "spicy" in Guanabee is simply intended to generate more hits-per-month to support their bottom line. That it generated my hit, indicates outrageous deviations from common sense can make money. This is another aspect where La Bloga separates from other Internet sites in that we deliberately avoid commercial interests.

Comments to the Guanabee post likewise reflect more grasping at straw men and low-level bursts of supposedly smart remarks like, "The highly-anticipated sequel to [The First Tortilla] will have Jade pushing Qdoba burritos in central Los Angeles. . ." That my post may generate more Guanabee hits is only unfortunate in that at times you need to know what a bad tortilla tastes like to better appreciate homemade ones. While we know La Bloga's "cooking" doesn't always reach what we strive for, be assured we won't go commercial on you and forsake the literary for the North American corporate dollar.