Making a “thumbs up” reminds me of SmokingToaster.

When we were in third? year university, SmokingToaster and her now-husband CapnPlanet went on a year-long work/study exchange to Australia. Back here in Canada, we only heard about their lives through sporadic letters that SmokingToaster wrote to my friend BarkyShark. One such letter mentioned that they were having some…shall we say, romantic challenges? Of the break-up kind? We were all worried, because if they broke up, would it still be politically correct to have CapnPlanet do our homework? University degrees were on the line!

A few weeks later I was at the movies with Sir Monkeypants and a bunch of guys from my class. BarkyShark had received a new letter, but didn’t want to blab SmokingToaster’s personal business to the dudes, who didn’t know her anyway. So she just gave me a thumbs up, and said, “SmooooooookingToaster.”

I knew right away what she meant, but the guys didn’t. They thought they were pretty funny so they joked that BarkyShark was naming her thumb “smokingtoaster.” All night long they’d use any excuse to give the thumbs up and say her name.

Sir Monkeypants was there that night, as was my good friend Gordo, and for months afterward, whenever they gave a thumbs up they’d say “smooooookingtoaster.” Eventually they met the real SmokingToaster and heard the whole story, but that didn’t stop them from the ongoing joke.

Even now, every so often, Sir Monkeypants pulls it out of the bag to make me laugh.