As the Cookie Crumbles: Haboobies

WWH ~~ By Doctor Woody

Certain residents of the Phoenix area are taking umbrage at local reporters who have taken to using the Arabic term, "haboob," to describe rolling walls of windblown dust and sand which have engulfed parts of the city several times in the past few weeks. The "haboob" occurs in several places in the world, including North Africa, the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, and the arid southern plains of North America, and were a pretty common feature of the Dust Bowl, in the '30s. It's a complex and fascinating metoerological phenomenon, and therefore, naturally, quite out of the ken or interest of the local yobbery.

“I am insulted that local TV news crews are now calling this kind of storm a haboob,” Don Yonts, a resident of Gilbert, Ariz., wrote to The Arizona Republic after a particularly fierce, mile-high dust storm swept through the state on July 5. “How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?"

No, really!

Now, there is not s bubble-headed, bleach-blonde Prompter-reader of either gender anywhere in the world who wouldn't want to say "haboob" as often and/or as salaciously as possible. And it's not one of the fabled Carlin Seven, but this got me thinking, and so what I'm proposing here is a little linguistic purity test. I'm gonna write a few sentences and and I'm gonna challenge you, dear readers, to identify the words in our common usage which derive from Arabic. Choose yer Fighting Words!

1) Admiral Kirk ordered his aid to check the cork on the coffee.

2) A gerbil, a giraffe and a gazelle walk into a bar for a jar of the local elixir, but they garbled the order and got jasmine marzipan.

3) The Mahdi strewed all the mattresses in his harem with orange and lilac blooms.

4) The Sheik served sugary syrup along with the sherbert after his game of racquetball.

5) In the dentist's office, I read a magazine about macrame.

6) They met over juleps; it was kismet.

7) The Arab performed alchemy in the alcove with alcohol and amber.

8) Instead of chocolate, the Copt kept carob candy in his cassock.

9) Bill O'Reilly was tripped up by his loofa and his yen for falafel.

10) When the 7-Up truck exploded, it was like a lemon-lime monsoon.

11) The chef prepared an unusual tabouleh with spinach and a hint of tarragon.

12) The mullah wore a sash of saffron muslin and satin mohair.

13) The Ayatollah's arsenal, hidden behind the barbican, included a 50 caliber rifle.

14) The crimson wine swirled in the carafe as the felucca sailed onward over the azure sea on the haj.

15) The fakir, clad in tattered calico, stacked the alfalfa in the adobe shed.

Answers on the jump...

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Answers underlined:
1) Admiral Kirk ordered his aid to check the cork on the coffee.

2) A gerbil, a giraffe and a gazelle walk into a bar for a jar of the local elixir, but they garbled the order and got jasmine marzipan.

3) The Mahdi strewed all the mattresses in his harem with orange and lilac blooms.

4) The Sheikserved sugary syrup along with the sherbert after his game of racquetball.

5) In the dentist's office, I read a magazine about macrame.

6) They met over juleps; it was kismet.

7) The Arab performed alchemy in the alcove with alcohol and amber.

8) Instead of chocolate, the Copt kept carob candy in his cassock.

9) Bill O'Reilly was tripped up by his loofah and his yen for falafel.

10) When the 7-Up truck exploded outside the Ramada Inn, it was like a lemon-lime monsoon.

11) The chef prepared an unusual tabouleh with spinach and a hint of tarragon.

12) The mullah wore a sash of saffron muslin and satin mohair.

13) The Ayatollah's arsenal, hidden behind the barbican, included a 50 caliber rifle.

14) The crimson wine swirled in the carafe as the felucca bobbed like a cork over the azure sea on the fabled haj.

15) A fakir, clad in tattered cotton calico, stacked the alfalfa in the adobe shed.

Source: The Metaverse