I’ve always wondered how he got tagged with the “abominable” bit. I mean, yes, maybe he attacked some villagers or whatever, but “abominable” seems pretty harsh for someone we cannot even prove exists.
Oh, I guess we need something to differentiate him from that cute little ice sculpture in your front yard with the corn cob pipe, but must we be so judgmental?
How ‘bout “The Snowman With Issues,” “The Misunderstood Snowman” or "The Snowman That Ate The Sherpas But You’d Be Pretty Touchy Too If Everyone Went Around Dissin’ You All The Time."
Can’t remember where, but I read once that the term was coined by a Victorian English explorer. The original Tibetan adjective used to describe the yeti was obscene, so the Englishman cleaned it up.
I read one time that it was a bad translation, that the original Nepali (or whatever) word was better translated as “disgusting.” I’m not fluent in Nepali, so I can’t vouch for its accuracy.
I’d bet on this explanation. The original Nepali phrase probably translates as something like “Mother-f*cking Huge Snowman.” (What would you say if you stumbled across one?) Someone like Sir Edmund Hillary then translated it as something more innocuous. He did search for the yeti after climbing Mt. Everest, I believe.
I remember reading somewherer - maybe at the eyeglass store, one of those little test cards - that the reason he was abominable was that he left a terrible odor.
The first well-known, and documented, sighting of a phenomenon attributed to the Yeti was the discovery of naked footprints in the snows of Mt. Everest, at 21,000 feet, in 1921. The sighting was made by Colonel C.K. Howard-Bury, a well-known, and respected, mountain-climber. Col. Howard-Bury was leading an expedition to the Everest at the time the sighting was made. Upon inspection of the footprints, the porters reported that they belonged to the Metch-Kangmi, roughly translated as a snowman (“Kang”, snow and “Mi”, man) with a foul stench (“Metch”, roughly translated to imply something “disgusting” - although the word itself may be translated into various other connotations resulting from the vast differences in Tibetan dialect). And thus, the word Abominable Snowman was born.
Well, as the resisdent snowman, feel I must add comment here.
Sure, the A/S might carry a strong bodily odor, but have you ever tried showering with ice-water? It’s not easy, I assure you. In a confidential memo, which I feel obligated to share, do to it’s potential ability to clear my friend, Yeti, he mentioned the following:
Hey, I tried showering again today. I was just getting used to the cold when Mary, that girl from accounting, came by. As many of the guys in the valley will tell you, she’s been around, so she should know about “shrinkage,” but nonetheless, she started with the pointing and chuckling. So I killed her. Sorry 'bout that.*
I think we (men) can all associate with this and I hope this ends the debate over his actions. Sure, they were a bit extreme, but I think warranted.
To add yet more yellow snow to the pile, I thought I read somewhere that “yeti” was a confusion between the apelike creature and some sort of mystical people supposedly living in the Himalayas in a hidden city. Shambala or something like that.
[hijack]For those who’ve seen the footage of the ice monster from outtakes of The Making of The Empire Strikes Back: would you agree that the real reason Lucas mostly edited the footage from the film was that it looked too much like the Abominable Snow Monster from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Raindeer?
Two points: First, the mythical Utopian village in the Himalayas is Shangri-La.
Secondly, hilarious though this thread may be, it doesn’t really belong here. Moving to MPSIMS.