A Royal Leader's Loyal Readers

Don’t be fooled by today’s title – it has nothing to do with anything.

About three weeks ago I signed up to receive daily emails from Merriam-Webster (as in, Dictionary) in which they send me their Word of the Day. So far there have been two words I’d never heard of, both of which I promptly forgot, and one word that was familiar but I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant. I’ve forgotten that one too. Obviously, daily vocabulary injections are lost on me.

Anyway, what’s more fun are links in the email that lead to articles on M-W’s webpage that deal with words and word usage, and language in general. It was there that I discovered some new words that I liked.

One that I didn’t know even needed to have a word to mean what it means is acnestis, which is the name of the place in the middle of your back that is just out of reach so that it is impossible to scratch there if it itches without assistance or equipment.

Another very cool word is biblioklept, meaning someone who steals books. “Book thief” pales in comparison, doesn’t it?

I also liked agelast, which is somebody who never laughs. If you know somebody like that, don't take it lightly. Being an agelast is no laughing matter.

Pick your poison

Playwright Lillian Hellman once said that if you want to know how people will feel about you when you are dead, just go to Europe for a year. When you come back you’ll see how many people didn’t even notice you were gone.

Another way to learn what people think about you is to listen to the innocent voices of their children.

Whenever I visited my brother and his family, I liked to take a quick trip to a grocery store to pick up a loaf of plain old white bread for myself. I never cared for the kind my health-conscious relations always kept on hand, those multi-whole-grain loaves that resemble matted kitty litter.

One day when preparing lunch, my sister-in-law asked my five-year-old niece what kind of bread she wanted for her sandwich. The little girl replied, “I want some of Auntie Jan’s decadent white bread.”

So, how do you really feel about it?