We’ve had an oven of scorchers in Boise. Worked up a lather of sweat, have you? Read on

It’s hot, I’m exhausted, and my brain feels like mush. I need to write something light and fun this week, sparked by a recent safari trip.

We bounced along a dirt road in the bush of Zambia, looking for big animals. Instead, we encountered bustling plump birds, splashed with black and white polka dots, red beaks and orange feet, and scattering in every direction. Our guide stopped the Land Cruiser and pointed.

“And up ahead, you see a confusion of guinea fowl.”

I had to chuckle. Perfect description. When the vehicle kicked up dust and noise, the dozen or so birds jumped around and spread themselves across the road in front of us. Instead of all seeking cover in the same direction, they just split up, bewildered and lost. Confused.

And that started an interesting discussion — and later some research — on words used to describe clusters of … fill in the blank. Many are phrases common to most of us, like a herd of elephants, an unkindness of ravens or a murder of crows.

Other phrases make sense once they come up: a tower of giraffes, a float of crocodiles, a rumpus of baboons, and one of my favorites: a wake of vultures. Indeed.

Still other names just make me laugh and thank thecreative people who came up with them. Take, for example, a dropping of pigeons, an improbability of platypuses, or an extinction of dodo birds. I mean, really?

As a fiction-writer-in-training, I’m on the hunt for the right words to use and any creative resources that can help. James Lipton’s “An Exaltation of Larks” (1991) offers more than 1,000 terms for clusters and collections. They range from professions such as health (a rash of dermatologists), to science (an eruption of vulcanologists) to business (a column of accountants) and more. I question whether some of these are really true, but he has enough that I’ve heard of to trust him. “A comedy of airline schedules” seems especially handy these days.

The section on cops and robbers also offered some gems:

A scam of con artists.

A skim of embezzlers.

A helping of pickpockets.

A facsimile of forgers.

If your personal cluster name doesn’t exist, just dream one up. For our recent record of hot days, I’m using “an oven of scorchers” and “a lather of sweat.”

Maybe not. Obviously, it’s time to get back to work.

Nancy Napier is a distinguished professor at Boise State University in Idaho. nnapier@boisestate.edu. She is co-author of “The Bridge Generation of Vietnam: Spanning Wartime to Boomtime.”

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