Names for sale

[Doug Yanega]

>On Fri, 22 Mar 1996, Doug Yanega wrote:
>
><snip>
>> Arnold Menke's classic list from BOGUS has several more, such as [...]
><snip>
>
>For those interested in seeing the full text of Arnold Menke's list of
>funny and curious zoological names, check out the BOGUS home page at:
>
>http://www.bishop.hawaii.org/bishop/HBS/BOGUS/bogus.html

I should mention that I have a link to BOGUS, and also my own master list
of odd names (exclusive of Menke's list) on my own home page, as listed
below - so those of you who mailed me requests for my full list, you can
get both articles on the Web now.

As for Lammers' more serious question as to whether it *is* ethical to sell
epithets, I must confess that if people were willing to pay me a month's
salary for naming a bee after them, I could be self-employed for 15 years
just given what I have on my desk right *now* awaiting description (with no
support to pay for the work). I certainly wouldn't say no, since the choice
appears to be poverty (and I'd finally be employed doing what I enjoy). If
I had a permanent position already, my answer might be different...then I'd
have the luxury of saying "no"...right now, I'd rather eat, so forgive my
mercenary view. Heck, there were a lot of Victorian-era folks who relied on
wealthy patrons, no? So, where does one acquire such a patron nowadays?
It'd be nice not to worry any more about competing for grants (and jobs)
with the molecular guys.

Doug Yanega       Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA      phone (217) 244-6817, fax (217) 333-4949
 affiliate, Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Entomology
          http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu:80/~dyanega/my_home.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82