Re: USAGE: names for pillbug/wood louse/woodbug

On Friday, March 12, 2004, at 10:51 AM, Peter Bleackley wrote:

> Staving Adam Walker:
[snip]
>> My other languages are spoken by extraterrestrials and
>> thus have no need whatsoever for doodlebugs.
>
> I'm used to "doodlebug" meaning the V1, an early form of cruise missile,
> used by the Germans to attack London in the closing stages of the Second
> World War.
Yep - an a lot fell fairly randomly over south-east England thus sparing
the people of London but not of the villages where they landed. I remember
the wretched things - and if one was coming you just hoped you heard its
engine purring away the whole time; if it cut out then you just hoped &
prayed it didn't land on top of you.

Of course at the tome as a mere 5 year old I didn't realize that I
personally might be blown to bits - just those around me (kids always
think they're immortal); indeed one did just miss the roof of our house
and landed a couple a fields away, the blast brought down the kitchen
ceiling (it may have done some other damage, but we were sheltering under
the kitchen table so that's all remember.

I guess it got too much for my Mum (my Dad was away in the RAF) and we
moved to the safety of Dorset - and I didn't learn about the V2s till
years later (nor the V3s [which, fortunately, never got fired] till even
more years later).

I'm afraid 'doodlebug' will always have these unpleasant associations for
me - it seems quite inappropriate for such harmless little critters as
woodlice aka pillbugs.

Ray
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