Geoffrey K. Pullum, "Language Log"Eyjafjallajoekull: the name says it all, doesn't it? No, of course it doesn't. It looks like a kitten walked across your keyboard. It's the name of the glacier covering the volcano in Iceland that just woke up and remembered that its job description says "Spew hot lava ash across northwestern Europe". I'm at Boston's Logan Airport, where the lights are going out one by one on the board showing international departures to Europe. Airspace is shutting down, flight by flight by flight.
The annotation beside my own flight to London Heathrow this afternoon says "Delayed: see agent" at the moment (there are no agents, of course; they are in hiding); but it will probably be canceled soon. And all the airports in Scotland, where I live, have been closed since the beginning of the day....
I just spoke for a while to a TV reporter covering the developing story in the departure hall here (Boston area viewers: does my hair look OK?), and he asked me if this experience had given me "a new respect for volcanoes". Where do they get these insane questions? I told him I despise volcanoes. Most of all the one under Eyjafjallajoekull.