kicking puppies is bad

My sister has decided to get two cats, and name them “Yiff” and “Yerf“. The idea behind this was that I would then have to say “Yiff” and “Yerf” in front of my mother (who hopefully won’t get the furry reference). And I would have to say it with a straight face. Otherwise, my mother would ask me to explain why I was smirking. And I have no desire to explain the terms “Yiff” and “Yerf” (or the entire concept of “furries”) to my mother.

Of course I’m not at all sure that my sister will follow through with this plan. The whole idea started with a discussion about how to explain furries to the “over 50″ crowd. An older (conservative) coworker was taking an interest in the online community ‘Second Life‘. This particular coworker thought the avatars with animal features were “adorable”. The question arose about whether it was appropriate to inform her that by selecting one of these antropomorphized avatars and interacting with the “furries” on Second Life, she was entering a community with “alternative tastes” (for which she was probably unprepared).

Now, stuck in my head, I have the somewhat hilarious image of my conservative coworker chatting with someone on Second Life saying “Wow! You must really like bunnies!”. Is it evil that this image makes me smile? Of course, I also have the somewhat less hiliarious image of me attempting to explain the terms “Yiff” and “Yerf” to my mother…