In a dream last night, I was trying to explain to a six-year-old girl (possibly a projection of my little sister) that the word for "trombone" derives from the French "trompe l'oeil." To demonstrate, I mimed playing a trombone, while a friend of mine was beat-boxing, but I was getting annoyed with him because he kept playing too-fast, hip-hop beats, and I wanted him to play slower, New Orleans-style second-line beats more appropriate for trombone.
I woke up wondering how I knew that "trombone" derived from "trompe l'oeil," and when I looked it up in Webster's On Line, I found that the word actually derives from the Italian tromba, or "trumpet."
So now I'm wondering if my subconscious life is getting so rich that I'm starting to dream in French puns.
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I was in Dollar Tree this afternoon, stocking up on supplies for my portfolio. I noticed that, on the packaging, paperclips were also called trombones, and I thought, "Oooh, I didn't know that." I thought it was Spanish, but it turns out trombone is French for paperclip. This is way too weird.
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