Mom: She’s visiting from Seattle, where she’s getting her PhD.
Random Guy: Oh? What are you studying?
Me: Genome Sciences.
Guy: Oh yeah? The really small stuff, right?
Me: Well, I guess it’s really small…
Guy: Do they wear hats too?
Me: …genome, like genetics. Not gnomes.
Later:
Mom: So your program is officially called Genome Sciences? Why not Genetics?
Me: Well, genomics is more holistic… Sort of bigger picture.
Mom: I’ll remember that name by thinking of gnomes wearing G-strings!
Me: …sometimes I wonder what goes on in your brain.
Now you know where I get it from.
22 comments
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Rillion
December 22, 2010 at 3:14 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Are people really that unfamiliar with the term “genome”? The mind boggles.
Adam
December 22, 2010 at 3:25 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The fact that someone would equate the two in a conversation where they don’t even really sound alike is mind boggling.
Kevin Jones
December 22, 2010 at 3:26 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
What’s impressive is apparently some people pronounce gnome as ‘jee-nohm’.
Riz Siemens
December 22, 2010 at 3:31 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I think the “gee” came from “gee-string”, not gee-nohm. You know.. Gnomes wearing G-strings.. G-Gnomes.. I don’t know, I wouldn’t have equated the two but I can KINDA see it I guess :P
Ian Andreas Miller
December 22, 2010 at 3:35 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
G-String Gnome Plan:Phase 1: Collect G-StringsPhase 2: ?Phase 3: Profit
TerranRich
December 22, 2010 at 3:39 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You should’ve said, “No, G-gnome, as in gangsta gnomes!”
breadbox
December 22, 2010 at 4:04 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
No no, “genomes” are gnomes that are tuned to G major.
Akshay Bist
December 22, 2010 at 4:53 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Ah man, I wish you had told him you did experiments on the small hat wearing people & taken it from there. Would’ve made for a much more interesting conversation to read
Sam Barnett-Cormack
December 22, 2010 at 5:51 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Ahhhh… mothers. Mine makes baffling comments when I try to explain things, as well. Actually, that happens less now that we’re both studying the same subject.
the_Siliconopolitan
December 22, 2010 at 5:52 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
So you’re a guh-nome?
Amanda Justice
December 22, 2010 at 6:18 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Your mom is awesome.
katalina
December 22, 2010 at 6:22 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I love that people think you can get a PhD in the science of gnomes. Like, is there really that much to them? Since they don’t exist except in garden statuary?
Lorry
December 22, 2010 at 7:12 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
hahaha, thats just … funny :)
Cara Stein
December 22, 2010 at 8:05 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I love that plus the assumption that she’d be getting a PhD in it but still not know how to pronounce “gnome” correctly.
Brian Westley
December 22, 2010 at 9:40 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Goblin engineering is better than gnome!
Annie
December 23, 2010 at 4:41 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
People are often impressed when I tell them I’m a nanologist… only because they don’t know what the hell it means.
Richard Girvan
December 23, 2010 at 10:09 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I like making up words too.
Kevin Jones
December 23, 2010 at 1:24 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I was actually going to bring in ‘Gnu’ but decided the one line was sufficient. G-string didn’t even enter my English degree mind as I don’t consider them the same thing. Then again, ever since i-Pad, i-Phone and i-Tunes, I guess the rules may have changed for pronunciation of unknown words.Which then makes me think of Un-i-Corn and the question “Is there an i-Corn?”
Annie
December 23, 2010 at 4:37 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It’s not made up (at least not by me). It’s the title given to a collector of gnomes.
katalina
December 26, 2010 at 6:40 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well it’s probably just a stilted academic pronunciation that is more “correct” than the common pronunciation of the word, “gnome.” You know, tomato, tomah-to.
Dwight Towers
January 1, 2011 at 9:36 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Does Gnome Chomsky have anything to do with this?
JM
January 4, 2011 at 6:23 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well, if you can get advanced degrees in theology, why not gnomology. If you do it right, in 2000 years no one will know that you actually made it up.