Today I was out playing under a tree and there were lots of funny-looking things on the ground that had fallen off the tree. They were like dry leaves except they were shaped like long thin sausages. I like sausages. So I asked Dad what they were but he didn’t know. So I told him.

These are pinkies and punkies.

Dad smiled because he likes to know what things are called. I gathered up some pinkies and punkies and gave them to him.

Dad later told me that he thought the things were really called catkins. But I think it’s confusing to change the names of things like that.