While researching a cartoon I encountered the dorkiest Internet discussion thread ever. It's actually quite sweet, but more than that it's...just dorky.
A classic post:
Caco is right, its a good idea to know locals who are interested in pedes, as Im highly interested, we can all share knowledge together and hopefully one day have pedes that we can breed together, and catch some pedes.
But, even in the world of centiheads, there's gotta be a wiseass who derails the discussion with talk of millipedes:
I'm personally more into millipedes, and I've just been starting to find some nice ones after the weeks of rain. I just found a huge soil millipede (sorry for the lack of a more scientific name) the other day, and it seems like there are tiny red centipedes under every log. Hopefully this will be a good spring for collecting.
All this "centihead" talk got me thinking about the whole -"head" suffix to address a hobby. State Route 114 outside Sag Harbor NY has its highway cleaning sponsored by the "Metro Parrothead Club," which I believe is a club for Jimmy Buffett fans. Why aren't people into George Bush called Bushheads? What about people into heads--would they be headheads?
Where did the "-head" suffix to indicate interest or fandom originate? William Safire, call your office.
Fans of Bush are technically called "shit-heads" (because "violent-stupid-power-drunk-asshole-heads" is considered accurate but unwieldy). Fans of his boss are called "dick-heads". Hope that clears it up a little.
ReplyDeleteTed,
ReplyDeleteI believe the entire "...head" description began with the Grateful Dead. Inside one of the earlier albums a liner note told followers of the band to write to an address marked as "Dead Heads," the main logo of the band being the skull design.
It then followed with other music fans; parrotheads, phishheads, fergieheads, Avril Lavigne heads, et al.
Obviously, it could have come from somewhere earlier in history though.
It's official: this blog has jumped the shark.
ReplyDeleteThe "-heads" suffix most likely began with the Grateful Dead and the "Dead-Heads" who would follow them around. I am pretty sure the "Parrot-Head" moniker is a direct relative of that, anyway.
ReplyDeletei wonder if it's a connection with drugs, (which of course are 'for the head'), since most of them are related, like deadheads, potheads, crackheads, etc.
ReplyDeleteWow. My first instinct was to say the Greatful Dead fans originated it. Still, I'm willing to bet there is a nautical or military root.
ReplyDelete-"Jarhead" might be as old as the marine corps itself.
-"Pothead" might also pre-date dead head.
-"nominclature head" certainly applies to some human beings in this world, but I don't know who...
Centipedes! Too bad images aren't allowed in the comments...I've been trying to find a pic of the scene in David Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" where Burroughs' friend and a Moroccan guy are in a large bird cage....and the friend has turned into a giant centipede that's holding onto the kid's head from behind, grasping him while fucking him. And then there'd be a comparison picture of a giant centipede.
ReplyDeleteToo blue?
Burroughs had a whole thing about Centipedes as embodying a kind of sub-human force of evil.