Fan Art 2 of 2: I'm an Ovaraptor! I'm gonna eat your babies!
As mentioned before, this is the second piece of art to come out of Arisia -- this one done by the talented and charming Randy Milholland of Something Positive fame. You see, we actually had a point where a group of folks at Arisia -- all of whom were connected to the old Superguy mailing list -- hit the T out to the Bostonian Hinterlands to meet up with Randy, who shares Superguy in his past too.
During our meal and chat -- there were four of us, one other invited guest having another commitment and two others unsure about driving down from where they were in the coming snowstorm -- I had a glass of wine. Now, as you know from Burns Night, it doesn't exactly take a lot to get me drunk. And while I didn't get more than buzzed, it was still a source of merriment.
"This is tomorrow's S*P," Randy said. "My dinner with Snarky -- showing him drunk off his ass saying 'Hey! Don't you start shit with me! I'm a Ovaraptor! I'm gonna eat your babies!"
"Yeah? You do that, and I'll change the masthead to that!" I shouted back.
So he did. Snarky is clearly a mean ass drunk.
Comments
I think it's traditionally spelled "oviraptor", if you wanna get picky.
Everyone loves a grammar Nazi. Right??
Posted by: sylvan | January 27, 2005 05:03 PM
ACTUALLY, no - not everyone loves a grammar Nazi. In fact, I find them generally insulting and usually don't research the things they say.
And, since my paper dictionary, my spellchecker AND dictionary.com DIDN'T have an entry of ovaraptor or oviraptor, I did google searches for both and found used heavily.
Posted by: RKMilholland | January 27, 2005 05:19 PM
Actually, Snarky loves grammar Nazi... for dinner. After having a half dozen martinis. Hey, he's a mean drunk, as the above pic shows... ;)
Posted by: Tangent | January 27, 2005 05:31 PM
Sylvan,
Actually, you're talking about spelling, not grammar, if you wanna get picky. =)
I don't have either one in my dictionary. Honsetly, never having seen the word written before, I would have guessed it as "ovuraptor" since is derived from "ovum." Although, the plural of ovum being "ova," "ovaraptor also makes sense. I'm not sure what the rationale behind "oviraptor" would be. Interesting question, though.
Posted by: Alexander Danner | January 27, 2005 05:31 PM
Speaking as someone who did not study Latin, but has talked to people who have, I suspect that it's a matter of declension. ALL thorny Latin problems have to do with declension, really.
Ovum is the singular noun. Ova is the plural noun. Ovi is probably the adjectival or prefixtural (I admit this may not be a real word) form.
Hmmm, in other news, I think I may be able to kitbash this Micropet I have sitting around into a Snarky. That, or I might scratchbuild a 25mm scale Snarky mini for Eric's D&D games.
Posted by: Dave Van Domelen | January 27, 2005 05:41 PM
That. Is. AWESOME. Go, drunken Snarky!
Posted by: UrsulaV | January 27, 2005 05:46 PM
That makes sense. Not having studied Latin since the seventh grade, my knowledge of its grammar is woefully limited. Sure is something I would love to study again, though...
Posted by: Alexander Danner | January 27, 2005 05:47 PM
Ovipositor, ovicide, oviraptor. Seriously. There's a reason there are 27,400 Google hits for "oviraptor" and 26 for "ovaraptor." Lifelong dinosaur nerd here -- I was spelling "pachycephalosaurus" in third grade, much to the amusement and/or annoyance of my classmates and neighbors. I wasn't going to say anything, but since the issue came up...
Posted by: Squiddhartha | January 27, 2005 06:21 PM
If dinosaurs were named after what they eat, what would they be called?
Nerapitor? Vegitararaptor? Comiraptor? Philosoraptor? Housearaptor? Computaraptor? Blogaraptor? Alcoholaraptor?
And Iím putting my self to sleepÖ
Posted by: Bc9b | January 27, 2005 06:45 PM
Ha! Well, that settles that then. I had been thinking of "ovule/ovulation" etc., but I was apparently following the wrong etymological path.
Posted by: Alexander Danner | January 27, 2005 06:49 PM
Vegitaraptor? That would be one tough dino.
(And, if the dino survives the Vegita-devouring attempt, a very popular one, too.)
Kris@WLP, not at all a DBZ fan
Posted by: Kris@WLP | January 27, 2005 09:07 PM
Now that I think about it, I have no idea what a Vegitaraptor is.
Posted by: Bc9b | January 27, 2005 10:58 PM
Okay... I wake up from a drug and flu induced coma, check my mail and websnark, and find that after a day of Rabbit Hole stories and gift art and birthday shit... the only significant discussion is on the spelling of Ovaraptor?
My assumption, based on the term, is that Snarky's prefered food are rooms built to resemble the President of the United State's office. Lacking the real thing (because after all, that would involve dealing with Secret Service and Karl Rove, and there are limits), Snarky haunts the sets of The West Wing and 24.
Posted by: Eric Burns | January 27, 2005 11:16 PM
Heh. Sorry, I can't help it. I'm a grammar junkie--I can talk about this stuff for hours. I mean...I'm writing a full-length play about punctuation, for goodness' sake!
Posted by: Alexander Danner | January 27, 2005 11:23 PM
Yeah, well, I don't want the seriously cool gift to be overshadowed by controversy over spelling an obscure term. I mean, the guy did something nice for me and for the site. I'd like other people to do nice things for me and the site. You know. Nice
(There's also something surreal here. I mean, he's a dinosaur, drinking wine, slurring his speech. He's a talking dinosaur drinking wine... and we're talking about spelling?)
Feh. I'm going to go chug more potent medicine and fall into another coma.
Posted by: Eric Burns | January 28, 2005 12:05 AM
It's not controversy...it's snarking. On a completely unrelated note, my son began spelling HIS favorite dinosaur at age 4. Massospondylus. Ain't that a mouthful?
The guy did something nice for your site, Eric. But you know the type of folks you attract here... we're all a bit too edumacated and picky for our own good.
But it IS Oviraptor. All five of my dinosaur books enthusiastically agree. Heh.
Posted by: Centurion013 | January 28, 2005 03:04 AM
Sorry! I never meant to insult Mr. Milholland's awesome drawing.
Please accept this "Sorry for Turning Your Birthday Fan Art Thread into a Spelling Kristallnacht" fan art as penance:
http://sylvanmigdal.com/art/i/snarky_f.png
And happy birthday, of course!
Posted by: sylvan | January 28, 2005 04:34 AM
Silly question - when did RKM post that pic? I can't find it for the life of me.
Posted by: Cythraul | January 28, 2005 08:22 AM
I'm sorry -- I didn't mean it to be controversy. I just thought it was an interesting discussion.
That the gift is cool goes without saying. I didn't feel compelled to comment on its awesomeness because its awesomness is self-evident.
Posted by: Alexander Danner | January 28, 2005 08:29 AM
Ah, never underestimate the power of the dinosaur fanatics, Eric! ;)
Posted by: Phalanx | January 28, 2005 10:39 AM
Just don't look behind yourselves, guys... you see, Snarky also loves to snack on spelling fanatics. *big grin*
Eric? Just take a bolt of something alcoholic and then look at this and laugh. ;)
Rob, who *has* been laughing (especially as he watches Snarky sneek up on guys to nibble on their spleens...)
Posted by: Tangent | January 28, 2005 12:41 PM
Awww... I can't stay mad at you guys. Plus I'm drugged. DRUGGED!
--Sylvan, may I post that pic? It's very, very cool.
(And yeah, no matter what the consensus is, the masthead's staying 'Ovaraptor' until I change to a new phrase. Why? Because... um... hey! Don't make me eat your babies!)
Posted by: Eric Burns | January 28, 2005 12:49 PM
Both bits of fan art are way fun, and too cool. Or should I say all three? 'cause Sylvan's apology thingy is pretty cool, too.
By the way.... isn't it Snarky's decision how to spell his own name? I mean, how many spellings are there for Aaron/Erin/Aron/Aeron/etc. out there? heck, I know (sad to say) women to spell Woman "Womyn." So if they can do it, it's kind of Snark's call what he is.
Heh. Shuttin' up. not!
Posted by: larksilver | January 28, 2005 01:38 PM
Post away, Eric! It's yours! You can draw a moustache on it if you want. :)
Posted by: sylvan | January 28, 2005 01:55 PM
I, meanwhile, think Ovaraptor is the BEST NAME EVER for ANYTHING EVER.
Posted by: Wednesday | January 28, 2005 10:38 PM
Period piece, is it?
Posted by: Ray Radlein | January 29, 2005 05:59 AM