Heh, I mostly get people when I point out plants or animals by their taxonomical names. Like the other day, when I forgot the common name for Hesperis matronalis (Dame's Rocket is one), but I did remember Hesperis matronalis.
Sometimes I just do it for fun: "What's your favorite animal?" "Oh, Ophiophagus hannah, obviously."
Yay! I annoy people who mention dolphins by asking if it was a Stenella or a Tursiops.
Annoying event from my Coastal Plant Ecology class: There were all these various weeds that we had to know by genus and species, some of them very tricky. Ever try to distinguish Distichlis spicata from Sporobolus virginicus, especially when there are no seed heads present? However, there was one species that *everyone* knew on sight: Lemna, or duckweed, those little round green dots that float on top of ponds. Only duckweed looks like duckweed, and the word Lemna is pretty easy to remember.
So, on test day, we're all walking out on the coastline, and the prof is pointing to plants and saying, "What is that?" and we're getting on our hands and knees, if necessary, and peering at it, and writing down the names.
She approaches a pond covered with duckweed, and a wave of relief sweeps through the group, as we're all thinking, Hey, we're gonna get ONE right! Prof gestures and says, "What's that stuff on top?"
Who knows if her tone was somehow different than it had been previously, or if this student suffered a brain fart of massive proportions and forgot where he was, or what, but one student said aloud, "That's Lemna, isn't it?"
Groans of agony as the prof said, "Uh...yeah. Something else for number six, then..."
The guy apologized profusely to the group, but the damage was done. Many glares was he awarded.
--Q
