Do you remember being a small child and suddenly the grownups would start spelling words when you were within earshot? I remember my sister, brothers and I being underfoot at our house and suddenly everything uttered sounded like a foreign language -- although sometimes it really was.
Several words my grandmother never spelled were "supercilious" and "popinjay." She often used those two when talking about a man who lived down the street. We heard those two words a lot -- they were, I suppose, safe for our ears.
One of my favorite words was peccadillo. We did not hear that often except in whispers when my grandmother had someone in for tea. I have always loved that word. I think the word itself has gone out of fashion, but unfortunately its definition has not.
Lately all we have heard in the news has been about someone's misdeeds. My grandmother and her friends would be aghast at all of the monkey business zipping around. What a giant bore this has all become. I'm going to go read the dictionary -- who knows what I might learn from Miss Miriam Webster? She spells her words in big black letters I can see, and she even tells you what they mean.
What a concept.
