Okay, so right about now you're thinking, "Boona what? What the heck is a Boona anyhow?"

Boona isn't a what. It's a who. He's a character in David Brin's novel The Practice Effect. ​

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The book was published in 1984, when I was 13 years old.  I remember reading it and really loving it as a kid. ​

Its been about 30 years since I read it. Boona, as I recall, isn't even a major character. But he's got a funny, interesting name. ​

As it turns out, Calumny isn't made up​ at all. It's an archaic word from Middle English:

noun, plural cal·um·nies.

  1. a false and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone or something: The speech was considered a calumny of the administration. 
  2. the act of uttering calumnies; slander; defamation. 

Origin: 1400–50; late Middle English < Latin calumnia, equivalent to calumn-,perhaps originally a middle participle ofcalvī to deceive + -ia -y3)

​I stumbled across the word yesterday as I was listening to another blast-from-the-past, an audiobook version of Christopher Stasheff's The Warlock In Spite of Himself.  It's also a great book, and has a lot of Renaissance culture and antiquated language in it, including use of, you guessed it, the word Calumny. 

This morning on the train, I was thinking about the warlock book, just sort of turning it over in my brain.

Out of nowhere the phrase Boona Calumny just popped into my head​.

After I thought about it for a while, I realized it was the name of the character, but I couldn't recall from where​.

A quick search on Google later, and I had my answer, and was reunited with my old friend The Practice Effect. 

This whole experience boggles my mind. First, I'm amazed that a tiny piece of information from a book I read 30 years lingers in my brain just waiting for me to fish it out of my mental soup.​

Second I'm blown away by how technology enabled me to make this connection happen.  ​

In a very real way, what I just did is just like being a character in one of these novels.​

I enhanced my own mental abilities with a network of information that's available almost planetwide. ​

Which was only possible because the brain is so amazing to begin with. 

I just downloaded the audiobook version of The Practice Effect, and ​I'm going to enjoy experiencing it in this new way. 

I'm grateful for what the human brain is, and does.  We really are amazing creatures. ​

Posted
AuthorMako Allen
Categories365 Gratitude