Recently, Merriam-Webster online held a poll to identify the top ten favorite words chosen by the visitors to their website; the results are here. I don't want to ruin this for you, but the top word chosen was also my favorite word, the word "defenestration." Here's the definition, from Merriam-Webster online:
Main Entry: de·fen·es·tra·tion
Pronunciation: (")dE-"fe-n&-'strA-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: de- + Latin fenestra window
: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window
- de·fen·es·trate /(")dE-'fe-n&-"strAt/ transitive verb
Just try and use that puppy in a sentence, will you? What a fabulous, unmarketable, incredibly specific term. ("Walter defenestrated the elephant to create an escape route." or "We were quiet throughout the sermon, but we all gasped at the defenestration." or "The defenestration of Betty opened the door to my own.")
For those of you who think that's random, here's one of the photographs that comes up when you put my name, Brad Denton, into the Google Image Search directory:
What are they doing?
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I've been reading again.
I don't have time (we're already late for a dinner date, Jami and I) to write down everything I should about the wonderful things I read over the summer, but know that a huge book geekfest is coming. Soon. I'm currently reading Faulkner's Sanctuary, with an eye towards re-reading Light in August -- great stuff, this, and inspired by reading my aide's great paper on As I Lay Dying. Faulkner, now, that boy could string words together. I'm excited by the prospect of revisiting his work for the first time in four or five years. Man alive!
You know what? The only thing better than reading . . .
. . . is re-reading. (What did you think I'd say? Heroin, or something? It's a family friendly blog!)
