Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time.
For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a "couch potato."
A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television.
Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen-seventy-six.
Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government.
Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher. It is called the "Official Couch Potato Handbook."
Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as "mouse potatoes" enjoy working on computers.
A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen.
