Latin is part of what we do. It shows a commitment to objectivity, but its elegance also appeals to a sense of "other", of activities that are not just consumption and mindless surplus. If you approach shell collecting the same way as, say, stamp collecting, then you will miss out on its more profound rewards, and on the window it freely offers anyone into natural science.
This is not snobbery, as some infer, but the reasonable proposal that people will get far more out of this if they adopt an appropriate frame of mind. You wouldn't sit someone down in front of a piano and say "here - play the Moonlight Sonata". You'd at least give them the sheet music and expect them to be able to read it...

PC

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fred Schueler
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 12:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Is there a common name for this cone

On 12/3/2013 12:14 PM, Callomon,Paul wrote:
> Yes, and when you go to a concert the musicians should just read all
> the songs out loud. That way the audience won’t be “turned off” by the
> combination of words and music. This is known as “dumbing down”.

* I once got a herp guy interested in Birds just by writing the scientific names of the Birds we were seeing in my notes. He'd only ever encountered birders who used English (AOU) names exclusively, and this had turned him off Birds in general. You only show you're serious about a taxon by "singing the song of the first-given names of the children of the Earth."

fred.
================================================
>
> *From:*Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf
> Of *GARY FREDRICKSON
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 03, 2013 12:03 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: [CONCH-L] Is there a common name for this cone
>
> As was pointed out, this was a group of non shellers. It would seem to
> me that the fastest way to turn anyone off to shells is to hit them
> with all that latin on their first real contact. Let them become interested.
> Then hit them with the scientific names.
>
> *From:*Peggy Williams <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> *To:* [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 3, 2013 10:22 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [CONCH-L] Is there a common name for this cone
>
>     B) Who decidesa newcommon name fora new species?
>
> Actually, for American species, Tucker Abbott made up many of the
> “common” names for his books. It made his books more popular, I think.
> I know that lazy people (too lazy to try to remember scientific names)
> use them even when the scientific name is coupled with them.
>
> I know that some of his names weren’t the ones that were “common” in
> my area when I was a child and didn’t know about scientific names.
>
> I also know that I have to remember Tucker's common names so I can
> communicate with those who don’t know scientific names.
>
> This is a soapbox of mine. Sorry. I, too, think scientific names
> should be used.
>
> C) Who has thetask of spreadingthe new name?
>
> Tucker spread a lot of them.
>
> Peggy Williams
>
>
>
> Il Lunedì 2 Dicembre 2013 19:18, john k tucker <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> ha scritto:
>
> Dear Joyce,
>
> In the original description of Conus ranonganus, da Motta, referred to
> is as 'Tao Poon Ranong' or as has been suggested the Ranong cone shell.
>
> Yours,
>
> John
>
> On 12/2/2013 7:29 AM, Joycematthys wrote:
>
>     We will be doing a program for "non-shellers" and like to use common
>     names rather than the scientific names of the shells that we show
>     them. Is there a common name for /Conus ranonganus?/
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     Ken Matthys
>
> --
> John K. Tucker
>
>              Peggy Williams: shell collecting trips
>
> author of /Shallow Water Turridae of Florida and the Caribbean/
>
> Visit my website:
>
> http://www.shelltrips.com/
>
>                                 PO Box 575
>
>                          Tallevast FL 34270
>
>                             (941) 355-2291
>
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>


--
------------------------------------------------------------
          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
          RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
------------------------------------------------------------

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