An Election of Hoaxes

A flock of birds. A herd of cows. A school of fish. An exaltation of larks. Many nouns in English have another, special word to designate a grouping. In the run up to the elections, I have been listening to the reports being circulated about the candidates and noticing they resemble nothing so much as those emails friends forward with capital letters and exclamation points, full of dire warnings or outraged sensibilities that turn out to be pure hokum. The aggregate of the missives is what I propose we call “an election of hoaxes.”