2008/09/09

Google Fails in Dream

I had such a stressful dream just now. But maybe it's a way of showing me that I shouldn't care about being right all the time -- it ultimately destroys friendships. Anyway.

I (recalling the real-life episode of Q.I.) recount to my sister how "vestibule" can mean an anteroom/entrance, or also the derriere region of a female elephant. My sister, however, is adamant that a vestibule does not mean anything room-like. So, naturally, we turn to the immediate source of the internet. Google search for {elephant vestibule} resulted in a lot of images of cartoons. I guess in my dream "elephant" was some sort of animator slang for "cartoon", and vestibule for a particular type of pose. Searching the OED was equally useless, it came up with specific definitions (that I can't recall now), but none of them related to the concept of "room". There was also some "secondary" plot in this dream involving having to literally fend off a woman (who thought she was in love with me), and some property damage to my most precious posessions -- books. The book that was damaged was a rare (and comprehensive) Chinese-English etymological dictionary, that instead of focusing on the formation of the written word, focused on the change of meanings. (Such a dictionary does not exist in real life, to my knowledge.)

But yah, that was my dream. It's about 5:30am right now, and I'm still in disbelief. But a quick google searched confirmed that what I dreamt wasn't true; the image results now show a series of images of chambers and entrances. Also, the first (and therefore oldest) definition of "vestibule" in the OED:
"In reference to ancient times: The enclosed or partially enclosed space in front of the main entrance of a Roman or Greek house or building; an entrance-court or fore-court."
To be vindicated against my own dreams. Is this a sneak-peak at being senile? The confusion alone will be enough to drive anybody mad..

No comments: