Words

I admit it -- I'm a word geek, and I'm not alone. Both my sons are fascinated by words, and since long before there was an "us", Judy and I have shared the joy of finding great words and funny word uses. Sometimes it's the word itself, and sometimes it's a peculiar way that words are used together. For an example of the former, a colleague once challenged me to spell "eleemosynary" and define it. I think he intended to challenge me, kind of like throwing the fastest pitch he could and seeing if I could catch it (for the record, I did). For the latter, I recently overheard the owner of a restaurant in Iowa City tell a customer "We're still organic, but we have a computer." The juxtaposition of organic food and using a computer struck me as funny, since the owner seemed to feel like he needed to justify having a machine.

If you're interested in words, you might want to look at Free Rice, Rinkworks, or the Merriam-Webster word-of-the-day sites to expand and perhaps challenge your vocabulary. Have fun, but beware -- it's catching!