Trombone and Monkey

I realised today that I remember the registration number (ULW 505, since you ask) of the car (a boxy old Anglia, since you ditto) of the headmaster of the school I was at half a century ago. Somehow, when so much that would have been vastly more useful, beautiful or illuminating, has fallen down the oubliette for good and all, this entirely worthless fragment remains firmly lodged. I could use the space too, now that my memory banks appear too full (of this sort of dross, no doubt) to take much more in, or even to allow me to remember what I was talking about a moment ago... But yesterday I discovered by chance a couple of facts which, though useless, do have a certain beauty, and stand a chance, I think/hope, of staying put in my frail memory. The French, I discover, call a paperclip a trombone - a rare flight of fancy by Moonseer Froggie there, at once perfectly descriptive and surreal. And the Polish - ah the Polish - call the @ sign, for which we have no word but at, a monkey. Think about it. I love it, and am going to set about introducing it into common usage. I suggest we all do the same. Ridicule and incomprehension will be our portion - but it will be a noble fight. We also need words for ... (OK it's an elipsis, but only subeditors use that word)and / - forward slash is very ugly. Oh there's stroke of course - but then what's back slash called - backstroke? Enough - time for my medication.