Word Of The Day

I know. I know. This is my third post for the day, but I can't help it. I keep finding such interesting stuff.

Miss Snark just taught me a new term: sock puppet.

To quote Wikipedia's definition: A sock puppet is "an additional account created by an existing member of an Internet community pretending to be a separate person. This may be done so as to manufacture the illusion of support in a vote or argument or to act without social effect on one's 'main' account. This behaviour is often seen as dishonest by online communities."

I have to confess that, although I've encountered the phenomenon more than once, I didn't know there was an actual term to describe the behavior. Cool beans.

My most memorable experience with a sock puppet was the one my mother made for me when I was about five. On a family trip from New York to New Jersey to visit my paternal grandparents, I dropped the puppet out the window of the car. My father had already scolded me for dangling the puppet outside the car while I waved to fellow motorists, and I lacked the courage to admit what had happened. I just sat in the backseat crying quietly until my mother realized something was amiss. Of course, several miles had already passed by the time this happened.

The memory of my father and mother both walking along the shoulder of the Jersey Turnpike looking for the puppet I'd lost is only outweighed by the remembrance of my joy when they actually found the freaking thing.

Years later, my mother told me that my puppet was the first craft project she had ever taken on as an adult. She sewed the doll together by hand. Since she didn't expect to ever do such a thing again, there was no way she was going to see it abandoned on the side of a road.

Sock puppet. A good memory and a good word for the day.