Double Meanings

Rebecca and I were off at nature camp for a few weeks, and one of the things they taught us to do is canoeing. At the end, we went on a three day canoeing trip. One thing about canoes is that every name of a part of the boat, paddle, or stroke has a double meaning, thus a good way to make puns—or unsuspecting weird statements. (I can make canoe puns, canoe?) For example, the first rule of canoeing is to 'always keep your butt covered'. This is because the end of the paddle is called the 'butt'. If it gets scratched, it'll hurt your palm.

The paddle parts also have a song, "Butt, neck, throat, shaft, flare blade tip, flare blade tip, flare blade tip" sung twice, then "These are the paddle parts". It fits nicely to 'London Bridge' but there's also a Bob Dylan version that I personally prefer.

One night we were out canoeing, and Rebecca and I were sharing a boat. We were having fun making physics demonstrations of the doppler effect and sonic boom, when I complained, "My palm hurts."

"Oh," Rebecca says. "I'm sorry. Is your butt scratched?"


Sachi