What Hobby? Excuses, Excuses 3 Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "I am allergic to honey. I break out in hives."

Answer: Apiculture

Apiculture is a technical term for "bee-keeping." Bees produce honey, and live in hives. Herbert, if he can be believed, avoids honey and if he doesn't, then he develops hives, that is, "a localized skin reaction characterized by red, itchy skin." But I drone on and on! Forgive me. I'll just buzz on to the next question.

2. "I joined a club for that hobby! But they were all stuffed shirts. I couldn't bear it."

Answer: Arctophily

Arctophiles are collectors of teddy bears. It just seems wrong to give a long stuffy name to a teddy bear collector. Herbert gave you a hint with the word "stuffed", which teddy bears are, and the word "bear". The word is from the Greek for "arctos" for bear, according to the Oxford Dictionary.

I know you know this, but I can't let a Teddy-Bear-info section go by without giving the origins of the Teddy. "Factmonster.com" lists the following information's source as the U.S. Navy: In 1902 Theodore Roosevelt went on a hunting trip and refused to kill an old bear the hunters had all surrounded. "Not long after this took place, a famous cartoonist named Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon based on Roosevelt's rescue of the bear. When a store owner in Brooklyn saw the cartoon, he decided to make toy bears to sell in his shop. He asked President Roosevelt for permission to use the name 'Teddy's Bear' for his toys, as a reminder of the bear Roosevelt had set free. Nowadays, everyone knows these toys as Teddy Bears...named after President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt." The story with more details is also on "gilderlehrman.org" and this site said the bear was old and sickly, and the other hunters tied the bear to a tree and suggested Roosevelt kill it for sport, and that he would not.

3. "It was not what it was cracked up to be. And where are you getting these words? A hen-cyclopedia?"

Answer: Oology

An oologist collects bird eggs. Hints in Herbert's answers were "cracked", because that is what eggs do, and "hen-cyclopedia", with refers to the chicken mom of an egg and is a play on "encyclopedia". An oologist collects all types of eggs, because if he just collects chicken eggs, then that is a pretty poor collection. Not judging!

I was just having an imaginary conversation with Col. Harland Sanders (of the Kentucky Fried Chicken fame), who just HAD to be an oologist, and I asked him why DID the chicken cross the road. He said "You mean I missed one?" Har. That's all, yolks!

(Thanks to madore.org for the oology joke, and for entertaining me with many more chicken jokes.)

4. "I asked the caf�'s owner if I could have some sugar packets and the owner just kept singing 'Sweet Chai of Mine'. I got scared."

Answer: Sucrology

"When I pass the sugar, I do it violently. My nickname is the Hurry Cane." (pungents.com)

A sucrologist is a collector of sugar packets. Thanks to "memebase.cheezburger.com" for the "puns and roses" chai pun.

I wonder if there is a name for those who collect sugar-substitute packets. Pseudosucrology? If that's a real word, remember, you saw it here first!

5. "I could not stick to it. I worked with a buddy and he had a licker problem."

Answer: Philately

Philately: "Stamp Collecting...the hobby of paying large sums of money for tiny pieces of paper that people have spit on." Definition from "stamp-collecting-world.com" Now, they are joking, I know, because I would think that collectors would collect un-licked stamps. I hope so, anyway. Many stamps today are self-adhesive and peel from a backing, so "stick to it" is an applicable pun, even if licking is not involved.

The "Licker problem" pun is an old one that I recalled about a puppy not being able to control his licker.

6. "I worked with a partner and he had a speshell collection, and I wanted it, and he called me shellfish... it did not work out."

Answer: Conchology

Conchology is the branch of zoology that deals with shells, according to Merriam-Webster online, and a conchologist collects shells. Herbert apparently got into shells (hah!) but coveted his partner's "special" mollusk collection and quit the hobby.

There is a large collection of sea puns at "punpedia.org" under "beach-puns."
I am not sure if that is a good thing. They are the ones that suggested "speshell" as a pun. Now, I am quite sure we should all blame them.

7. "I gave it a spin but my friend said it was a 'groovy hobby' and now I hate it."

Answer: Discophily

Freedictionary.com defines "discophily" as the zealous collecting of phonograph records. I wonder what a person is called if he collects phonograph records, but non-zealously. For those youngsters among you that think music grows on MP3-player apps on phones, phonograph records were played on a "record-player" and they were called "records" and they had grooves, and to date myself even further (sob!), in the 60s, something "cool" was called "groovy." Now go ahead and say it. "What is vinyl?" Go ahead! Cut the heart out of an old person!

The groovy pun came from the title "9 Groovy Facts about Vinyl Records" on blog.discmakers.com and the "spin" pun came from my brain. It's a spinnin' often.

8. "Those Russian nesting dolls freak me out. They are so into themselves."

Answer: Plangonology

A Plangonologist is a doll-collector. A Russian nesting doll, also called matryoshka, is defined by "Oxford University Press" as "each of a set of brightly painted hollow wooden dolls of varying sizes, designed to nest inside one another." Herbert does not like them. He is a Russian away from them, in fact.

I must say that doll-collecting is kind of freaky. Don't they all stare at you? I mean, if you have a room full of dolls, isn't that the stuff that Stephen King novels are made of? Smiling, staring, ... all of them thinking of the time when the lights go off? No offense to all the doll collectors out there.

Don't get me started on Barbie doll shoes. That is another rant.

9. "Every time our club met, the leader kept saying HE was the legend, and lecturing us on knowing when to 'fold them'. I quit."

Answer: Cartology

This pun is mine, because I cannot fold those darn maps! "Know when to fold 'em" is a line from Kenny Roger's song "The Gambler".

Cartology, also called cartography, is map-making. A collector of maps is called a map collector.

Are the maps all behind glass? Or do you have to fold all those maps? I could never do that! I would soon look like a multi-colored human-size burrito. Herbert understands.

10. "Every book and cranny was filled! A big book fell on my head. I can only blame my shelf. I had to quit."

Answer: Bibliophilia

Thanks to buzzfeed.com for the book puns. Bibliophilia is the love of and sometimes the collecting of books. The kind of books that do not plug in, I think, gets the big word. Some sites say that a bibliophile loves books but does not necessarily collect them, and to be sure I would have to call the hobby "book collecting." But that is not fancy-schmancy, and by golly, I wanted big smart-sounding words! So I went with the sites that said a "bibliophile" collects books. You knew "biblio" meant books, so overlook my stretching the word, please.

Source: Author Allison03

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Questions		Choices
1. "I am allergic to honey. I break out in hives."		Plangonology
2. "I joined a club for that hobby! But they were all stuffed shirts. I couldn't bear it."		Bibliophilia
3. "It was not what it was cracked up to be. And where are you getting these words? A hen-cyclopedia?"		Conchology
4. "I asked the caf�'s owner if I could have some sugar packets and the owner just kept singing 'Sweet Chai of Mine'. I got scared."		Oology
5. "I could not stick to it. I worked with a buddy and he had a licker problem."		Sucrology
6. "I worked with a partner and he had a speshell collection, and I wanted it, and he called me shellfish... it did not work out."		Philately
7. "I gave it a spin but my friend said it was a 'groovy hobby' and now I hate it."		Cartology
8. "Those Russian nesting dolls freak me out. They are so into themselves."		Discophily
9. "Every time our club met, the leader kept saying HE was the legend, and lecturing us on knowing when to 'fold them'. I quit."		Apiculture
10. "Every book and cranny was filled! A big book fell on my head. I can only blame my shelf. I had to quit."		Arctophily

One more try, to find Herbert a hobby. This time the hobby suggestions are in BIG FANCY-SCHMANCY words! Herbert keeps making excuses, though ... as usual. Can you match Herbert's excuses to my suggestions for a hobby (in big scary words)?