Here's an old pearoast.
I pulled one on my son.

When they were small I used to take my kids to the local zoo periodically, as parents do. One of their favorite exhibits was the bobcats, as they look like very large versions of our own kitty.

One day my son asked me what their names were, and I told him that I didn't think they had names. This bothered him so much that he kept pestering me about it, until finally I spotted a sign identifying them as "Bobcat (Felis rufus)". So I informed him that one was Felis and the other was Rufus. As he was all of five years old, he bought it completely.

For the next few years that held as a family tradition, to go see Felis and Rufus to say hello. I would always chuckle to myself.

Fast forward about twelve years. My son is now seventeen and hanging out with his friends, and they go off to the zoo. A couple of hours later he returns, sees me in the kitchen making dinner and says "Dammit Dad! Bobcats are Felis rufus as a generic and specific name, not their real names!"

I looked at him blankly. "Yeah, and?..."

"So I just told the girl I'm trying to get to go out with me that their names were Felis and Rufus and she pointed to the sign and laughed at me!"

Kids. You can teach them to read, but not to see...
( Wanderer, Sat 27 Nov 2010, 3:55, 1 reply)

incidentally my cat is called rufus....

(Monkeystrumpet monkey. Monkey, MONKEY!!!, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 16:29, closed)