Sheepbees

More lab adventures!

The other day, I was taking a language sample and the niño was describing a scene in which a dog was being chased by a swarm of bees.

In Spanish, the word for bee is "abeja" and the word for sheep is "oveja".  In most dialects, b and v are pronounced the same.  So bees and sheep are different by only one sound (the o/a).

You see where this is going.

The niño kept saying "ovejas" instead of "abejas"—sheep instead of bees.  So I imagined a swarm of flying sheep exploding out of the beehive.  What a surprise to that poor dog!  (This is definitely not the first time I've heard this mistake from a niño, and I'm sure it won't be the last.)

In my imagination, the sheepbees are blue, because one of our students in the school in Los Tres Brazos insisted that he had seen blue sheep "en el campo" (in the countryside).  Thus, my co-boss and I have a running joke about blue sheep in el campo.

Then, last Sunday during the Gospel reading, Padre accidentally said "ovejas" (sheep) instead of "aves" (birds).  There's sheep flying around everywhere!  God and I laughed at our inside joke.

Sheepbees should totally be a thing.  Have you guys read Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld?  If you haven't, you should.  It's a YA steampunk about World War I, and it is magnificent.  Anyway, for those who have read it (and everyone else too), please enjoy the following unfinished sketch of some boffins at work:

And that is the story of me working with sheepbees in the lab.

Science is the funnest!