The Hanyocks

So several of you have asked me, "what is up with the address of your blog?"

A few months back, I switched my blog address from that one which contained our last name to thehanyocks. I've always regretted using our last name in the address. Especially since our last name is uncommon and dots could be connected on where we reside, attend church, school and so on... if someone wanted to... (if anyone reads this thing...) so I decided it was time to be safe and make the switch.


So I thought through all the possible things we could rename it.... and after rolling a lot of suggestions around, I picked thehanyocks.


Why?


First, we must flashback to my mom's childhood. Her grandmother, Grace, used to call her and her siblings: the hanyocks.


"Time for dinner, hanyocks!" or "you hanyocks should go outside and play today!"


My mom remembered it as an endearing term. And carried the usage on to her own kids and now grandkids.


So a few years ago, after she had just called my kids, 'hanyocks', I finally asked her what the term meant. And she said, "Oh, I don't know. I think it means 'kiddos' in German or something like that."


Due to the instant gratification of google, we decided to look it up on wikipedia. And here's what we read:


'unwelcomed visitor'; the germans used it to refer to a cross between a hungarian and a pollock; (hun + yock)


Suddenly, it took on a new meaning.


Oh how we laughed.

It was like the farside comic when the Lone Ranger finally discovers what 'kemosabe' means after all those years partnering up with Tonto.


So, it's now a bit of family humor and I just couldn't resist!

And now you know.