Chippy thinking

I was just in Vancouver, Canada. (Not Washington State.)

Vancouver got hammered by a major winsdtorm a couple of weeks back and millions of dollars worth of trees were blown over. I don't know how many trees that is. In Stanley Park they - I'm not sure who they are - are working flat-out to remove the debris and make the park look un-devastated.

So there is a huge pile of wood chips filling much of a parking lot. When I took a picture of it my children all rolled their eyes and said, as one, "Chippy thinking..." They are the majority of my blog readership and I can't let them down.

In North America, I was surprised to discover, chippy is a word used to describe women of low repute, as it were. Probably came out of New Orleans, possibly because of a supposed similarity between the little noises made by women of low repute and those of chipping sparrows.

Chipping sparrows? And those noises? Okay. I have been hanging around with the wrong kinds of sparrows. Thank god.

In the UK the word chippy refers to a fish-and-chips shop, possibly because of a supposed similarity between the little noises fish-and-chips shops make and those of chipping sparrows.

The urban dictionary (available on-line) also uses the word to describe hockey games that get a little out of hand, and it is in this context that I first heard the word. It is this meaning that I prefer - a little attitude, a little je ne sais quoi that winds up as a high-sticking penalty and no front teeth. Cocky, cheeky, a little rude.

There is a similarity between the sounds made by teeth falling to the ice and those made by chipping sparrows.

It all comes back to those damned sparrows.