Apparently someone just made it up

Need a good laugh to start out 2012? Then may I direct all Complete Las Vegans and CLVs in training to this wonderful Politifact Truth-O-Meter.

There's a chain email going around that says: "Now consider a group of baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not ... a Congress! I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington!"

A group of baboons is a congress?

Is there such a term?

Well, Politifact did the research on this term of venery.

While there is such a thing as a pride of lions, a pack of dogs, a flight of stairs, a flock of birds, a string of racehorses and gaggle of geese. There is even a parliament of rooks, a murder of crows, a tiding of magpies, an exaltation of larks, a cete of badgers and a dopping of sheldrake.

There are whimsical terms such as a tedium of golfers, an addition of mathematicians and an expense of consultants and a clutch of car mechanics.

But alas there is no such thing as a "congress of baboons." As one scholar that Politifact contacted said: "Apparently someone just made it up." Imagine that. Someone made up something in a group email.

Not a bad attempt, though. With Congress sitting at a 16 percent approval rating, a "congress of baboons" rings a bell deep within the American feelings for government these days.

Politifact discovered that there is such a thing as a rumpus of baboons, but the more accepted and correct term is a troop of baboons. So be careful not to refer to your U.S representative or senator as a trooper. It will just add to the confusion.

PS: Ancient joke alert (H/T to Michael Quinion): Four scholars at Oxford were making their way down the street and happened to see a group of ladies of the evening. "What’s this?" said the first. "A jam of tarts?" “Nay,” said the second, "an essay of Trollope’s." "Rather, a flourish of strumpets," advanced the third. "No, gentlemen," concluded the last. "Here we have an anthology of pros."

PPS: What is a group of journalists?