Читать книгу How to predict the weather with a cup of coffee: And other techniques for surviving the 9–5 jungle - Matthew Cole - Страница 35

A visitor from Mars would know immediately that the TV zapper’s important to us; why else would we give it such a variety of names and appear so bereft whenever it’s out of our sight? It’s our equivalent of the speaking stick that they pass around in mud huts when somebody wants to talk, except of course the zap is usually a sign to shut up. But it’s an honour to hold it, a symbol of power and control. And here’s a technique for keeping it in your grasp wherever you are in the house

Wherever we live, whatever our accent or upbringing, the name we give the zapper changes from house to house; it’s a one-word micro-dialect specific to our home. Some terms are common (the clicker), some are rare (the wand), but hardly anyone uses the proper name (the remote control). Here are some I like: The onner-offer, the flipper, the doofer (or hoofer-doofer), the buttons, the (fat) controller, the trolls, the mote, and my mother’s very own ‘the psss-pssst’.