Words

Me: “Don’t you want to roll your eyes at people who don’t know the difference between stationary and stationery?” Him: “It’s an easy mistake – the only way I remember it is that e goes with envelope.” Me: “I remember it because e goes with letter… which, now that I think about it, is a…

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” -Bill Cosby “I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself.” -Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) “Truth is beautiful, without a doubt; but so are lies.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) “Help!  I’m being held prisoner by…

On Facebook, sometimes users are required to type in a word to verify that one is indeed a human and not a cyborg or a hacker. It’s called a “captcha” – get it, like, “capture,” but all loosey-goosey and free-style? Say it with attitude – move your shoulders with each syllable. “Captcha.” (You totally whispered…

This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The triumphant, final alphabetic entry of Z – “zed” if you’re Canadian, or “izzard” if you’re Old English. And I know what you’ve been thinking: “Annie will probably talk about zebras. Or zest. Or zero.” But those are all too easy. So then I started looking…

Yesterday, my roommate got an email from a friend that said, “I just rented a movie. It turns out that ‘XXXmas’ does not stand for ‘Merry Merry Christmas.’” I laughed until I snorted. X does present a problem, doesn’t it? I mean, I refuse to tell you about the time in 5th grade when I…

Let me begin by saying that U is for a lot of hideous words. Udder. Ulcer. Urethra. Uvula. Upchuck. U might be turning into my least favorite letter. However, U is also for Ubiquitous, which is what I was this weekend – seemingly present everywhere at once. Becca and I did a lot. And friends,…

This morning, I am in a quagmire. I made a quick video on Saturday, but am questioning the decision to share it. The thought of broadcasting my quirks – my quaint qualities within a quadrangle – makes me queasy. I quiver, quaver, and quake at the quandary I am in. Perhaps I should have quelled…

Last week, the stars aligned. First, my friend Debbie dropped me an email, seemingly out of the blue, asking me if I read any Annie Dillard. My reaction: does Rick Astley shake his groove thang? Annie Dillard is breathtaking – one of my favorite writers. Her “Living Like Weasels” makes me want to throw a…

G is a very nice letter, don’t you think? Not as nice as A – A is just so sturdy and stable. It would be hard to knock over an A, what with its solid base and symmetrical shape. A is the best letter. But G is nice, too. It might roll around a little…

The word “sigh” What about the combination of the letters S-I-G-H makes people think of the actual act of sighing? When I sigh, I don’t say “Siiiiiiigh.” I don’t understand. I am perplexed. “Dilemma” vs. “dilemna” A few years ago, my dad asked me how I spelled the word “dilemma.” “D-I-L-E-M-M-A.” He and my mom…