Are you being funny? She asked.
I wanted to correct her.
I was trying to be clever.
Failing to be clever, if she missed it.
There was enough there for her to catch that it wasn’t quite the expectation.
Which may be a good way to describe me.
Not quite the expectation.
We were talking about something which made me think of words.
How much I like some of them.
How weird the English language can be.
It started with George Carlin, probably.
He liked to share how funny he thought words were.
Or weird.
Like Alter and Change.
You can Alter your plans and Change your plans and it’s the same thing.
But if you alter your pants and change your pants it’s not.
I had attempted something like that, using one word for another in the course of a quetzal with lime laced conversation.
And she caught the effort.
Even if the effort fell short.
Which means I wasn’t as clever as I thought.
Which is another lesson I learned to like early.
Don’t use two dollar words when ten cents will do.
A “putting on airs” of the dictionary minded.
I think I read there are two hundred most common words in any language, and if you learn those, you could be fluent.
Fast.
Two hundred sounds like a lot until you realize a lot of them are the five questions of journalism entries.
Who. What. When. Where. Why.
Is. Was. There. Here.
The fun thing about English is the melting pot way it came together, and the lack of care when it came to using them.
We added German, Latin, French, Spanish, Old English, Middle English and more into the mix and made a rue of it.
Some would argue it’s a mess.
Others, like you and me, kind of like the chaos.
Readers, I mean.
We like the scratches on dead trees and what they mean, and the more we read, the more we pick up, and I get the sense that the more we pick up, the more we want to read.
You are locked in a vicious cycle of story addiction, which I would bet makes you a little clever too.
If you overheard me changing the conversation about altering our plans and being thankful it’s not our shorts, you would catch my eye and smirk.
Maybe give a head nod.
A shared moment in a crowded room are funny that way.
What’s a word you use that no one gets?
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Hi, I enjoyed this wordplay. You might regret your usage of rue instead of roux, unless our weird and wonderful etymology causes you sorrow.