A Certain Number of Monks

Today I discovered the best collective noun of all time. OK, maybe it isn't the VERY best, but it is the only one that has made me laugh out loud through a mouthful of beer today.
It's from Somerset Maugham's 'The Moon and Sixpence' and is in the middle of a (hopefully) toungue-in-cheek discussion of the tendency of women to use tears to manipulate people (presumably men).
Anyway, the phrase is 'a sufficiency of handkerchiefs'. The olde-worlde-Englishness combined with the biting sarcasm are what got me. It may even make it into my 'top 500 amusing quotations' (TBD - although numbers 1 through 499 are likely to be from Oscar Wilde).

Thus began a short search for other amusing collective nouns, starting from this page, which is mainly just stupid ('an absence of waiters' for example).
However, the frankly weird suggestion 'an abominable sight of monks' reminded me of a good friend of mine who happens, through no fault of her own, to be French. She once translated the name of the Iowa city Des Moines for me: it apparently means 'a certain number of monks'. Not 'some monks' or 'a few monks' but quite specifically 'a certain number of monks'. I think that this would be a perfect name for an indie/punk band. Royalties to my usual address, please.

Ok, just spotted 'a whored of prostitutes'. Excellent...