Pity the unwary Googler

[julesjones]

I just went Googling for a word I had hitherto known primarily as a technical term in the day job. This was a mistake.

Apparently it is now also commonly used as the name of a particular sexual act.

I really, really didn't want to know that. I'm now going to have a visit from Mr Mental Image Fairy every time I see that term in what to me is its proper context, aren't I?

Comments

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

Now I'm all atwitter to know what the technical term is.

Purely in the name of research, of course.

[julesjones]

Not telling, because from the day I first got online, I've had a policy of not embarrassing $EMPLOYER by making it possible to identify them. Even before I started writing about boys doing boys. :-)

[brooksmoses]

You can share my pain when I see references to Particle Image Velocimetry by its usual acronym!

[julesjones]

Believe it or not, I had to think about that. (Possibly because it doesn't apply to my preferred sub-genre.) And then it dawned on me, and I felt great pity for you. That's *bad*.

[flippac.livejournal.com]

Could be worse. I suspect I'm going to spend a lot of time discussing the merits of Coq at a workshop next month.

[brooksmoses]

Oh, dear. Yes, that would be rather worse.

And whoever named that had to know what they were doing, too.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

My students were looking up advertising slogans (for an academic team quiz) and we had the rather uncomfortable experience of finding out what some people use Altoids for....

[julesjones]

Oops...

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

::blushing::

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Now I want to know!

My story is way before I got into gay sex, knew nothing of the terms etc. I wanted to buy my mother a hot water bottle which you could heat up in the microwave and the one I'd seen was in the shape of a bear.

I learned not to type "hot bear" into Google Image.

[julesjones]

[splorfle]

I used to get the occasional Google hit on my website by people looking for hot water bottles. I'm not quite sure what they thought when they stumbled into the (now removed) flash piece set in the Syndicate universe.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

Birders have a similar problem with the term 'jizz'. It used to mean - and in birding slang still does - a holistic impression of a bird, the combination of size, shape, behaviour etc that could lead to instant identification without reference to plumage. But thanks to the porn industry, it now also means something else (and rather yukky, if you ask me).

[julesjones]

I can see *that* leading to interesting conversations in front of the uninitiated.

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who has to talk about CBT in the context of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She's a kinky lesbian, so that was fun.

[julesjones]

A segment of my flist is probably now going "La la la, I can't hear you..."

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

Because they deal with the scientific CBT or because they don't want to know what kinky CBT is? Confuzzled, but then, I got three hours sleep last night with AWAKE! baby, so I'm easily confuzzled.

[julesjones]

Let's just say that there's more than one person who is aware of both meanings, but probably hadn't had their attention forcibly drawn to the connection until now. :-)

He's still refusing to sleep unless you're holding him, then?

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

Nah. This is just he's waking up now in the night and is then AWAKE! for an hour or two, no matter what you do or how you hold him.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

My first manager, back when I was much more embarrassable, always signed himself by the initials ASB, which to me, back then, were irredeemably linked with alt.sex.bondage.

[julesjones]

Yes, I can see that would be interesting. :-)