Haboobs, or just plain boobs?
Here's the latest from the Arizona booboisie.
PHOENIX — The massive dust storms that swept through central Arizona this month have stirred up not just clouds of sand but a debate over what to call them.
The blinding waves of brown particles, the most recent of which hit Phoenix on Monday, are caused by thunderstorms that emit gusts of wind, roiling the desert landscape. Use of the term “haboob,” which is what such storms have long been called in the Middle East, has rubbed some Arizona residents the wrong way.
Apparently there's something wrong with using a word for a sandstorm that comes from a part of the world where sandstorms are common. After all, "haboob" comes from the land of the A-rabs, or "Camel Meskins" as they're known in Arizona.
My question is this: I have no doubt that the people complaining about this will have no problem avoiding such Arabic invaders as algebra or algorithms, but whatever will they do without alcohol?
PHOENIX — The massive dust storms that swept through central Arizona this month have stirred up not just clouds of sand but a debate over what to call them.
The blinding waves of brown particles, the most recent of which hit Phoenix on Monday, are caused by thunderstorms that emit gusts of wind, roiling the desert landscape. Use of the term “haboob,” which is what such storms have long been called in the Middle East, has rubbed some Arizona residents the wrong way.
Apparently there's something wrong with using a word for a sandstorm that comes from a part of the world where sandstorms are common. After all, "haboob" comes from the land of the A-rabs, or "Camel Meskins" as they're known in Arizona.
My question is this: I have no doubt that the people complaining about this will have no problem avoiding such Arabic invaders as algebra or algorithms, but whatever will they do without alcohol?
posted by Jack McCullough at 10:04 PM
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