Goatard of the Month: Katyusha

This month's new goat word (goatard) is not a new word, per se, but a new application of a very old Russian word.

To Katyusha yourself ... to shoot yourself in the foot (preferably while sticking foot in mouth -- if you are affiliated with Hezbollah).

Common usage: Open mouth; insert katyusha.

Source: From Perish the Thought .... "By rejecting this resolution, Lebanon may have just Katyusha'd some of their global sympathy."

Pronounciation: See Foxnews.com .... the "y" is silent if you're from the south. Otherwise, roll the "yu" up behind your eye-tooth and slide it over your tongue.

Extended Definition/Epistemology: (from wikipedia) Katyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery built and fielded by the Soviet Union beginning in the Second World War. They are multiple rocket launchers able to deliver a devastating amount of explosives to an area target in a short period of time, although with low accuracy, and then take a relatively long period of time to reload. Compared to other types of artillery, they are fragile but inexpensive. Katyushas of World War Two, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were usually mounted on trucks.

Katyusha weapons of World War Two included the BM-13, light BM-8, and heavy BM-31. Today, the nickname is also applied newer truck-mounted Soviet multiple rocket launchers (including the BM-14, BM-21, and BM-27), and their derivatives worldwide. It can also refer to Katyusha artillery rockets used individually, a mode of attack sometimes used in guerrilla warfare, military harassing fire, or attacks against population, for example by the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, Hezbollah, the Iraqi insurgency, and the Taliban.

Red Army troops adopted the nickname from Mikhail Isakovsky's popular wartime song, "Katyusha", about a girl longing for her absent beloved, who is away performing military service. Katyusha (Катюша) is the Russian equivalent of "Katie", an endearing diminutive form of the name Katherine: Yekaterina →Katya →Katyusha. German troops coined the sobriquet Stalin organ (German: Stalinorgel), after Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and alluding to the sound of the weapon's rockets and the resemblance of the loaded rocket rails to a pipe organ.

Coming soon to punch lines everywhere: "Are you happy to see me, or is that a Katyusha in your pocket?"


Remember -- you read it first here!