Word Power

I have a love affair with words. Yes, I know that's silly but it's the way it's always been. I love words written on paper, the walls, or in the sky. I love words recorded in books and I especially love it when they are spoken in whipsers, yells or echoes. I love eloquent words but trashy ones are just as nice. I just love words.

When I was a freshman in college, my English 101 professor told all of us that we needed a brand spanking new Meriam Webster's dictionary. Like all of the other green college newbies, I ran out to buy one, not realizing that I dropped thirty bucks that could have been used for pizza on a book that weighed too much to carry in my backpack. Furthermore, I never even cracked that puppy...for class that is. Instead, what happened was something straight out of Say Anything. Like the nerdy, stuck up Diane character, I began keep track of words that I looked up. Sometimes they were for other college classes. sometimes it was things that I heard but didn't understand and sometimes...it was just for fun. A few years later, I flipped through that red beauty and noticed all of the check marks by all of the glorious words. Ahhh, how wonderful.

Whether they admit it or not, everyone has favorite words or phrases. For my friend, Sarah, they have always been shed, doily, and balls. Maybe it's because you have no choice but to laugh as those words come out of your mouth. They feel funny as you say them, like a tickle against your tongue. My favorites are sanctimonious and acquiesse. Say them and they seem to go on forever, the "s" sound trailing on and on like the smoke of a jet engine.

For every favorite, there must also be a word or a phrase that makes one's skin cringe. One summer, I met a girl who didn't like any word that ended in "uck". She said they made her feel dirty all over. I thought that it was just plain funny that words could bother her that much until I met my own word nemisis.

We were at Mark's cousin's house in Pennsylvania for the weekend. In the morning, we woke up and the two of them started eating bagels and talking about how wonderful they were.

His cousin rips into a big hunk of bagel smeared with cream cheese and he says, "You know, sometimes a good bagel just hits the spot."

No I know that I must have heard that phrase uttered before that moment and it must have just gone right over me like nothing. But this time, this moment, those words "hits the spot" caused me to bristle and then cringe. In fact, those words still have that same effect on me today. If you think about it, "hits the spot" really doesn't make sense. I mean, is there a little spot in your stomach set aside for special things like bagels or other food items? Does the food travel down your esophagus and into your stomach landing on just that spot and everything in the world is perfect if for no more than a moment? I just don't get it.

When I was doing college, I worked at Pizza Hut as a waitress. While I was there, the breadsticks were described as "piping hot". I guess that's a nice descriptive way to explain the breadsticks. What drove me crazy was when I'd be taking someone's order and they'd say, "We'd like the piping hot breadsticks, please."

The sarcastic part of me always wanted to come back with comments like, "You mean you won't eat them if they're freezing cold?" or "How about we just send out a pan of the dough?" Plus, what does piping hot actually mean? Are those little ringlets of steam called pipes? Why not just say steaming hot? I'd rather see the breadsticks described as buttery, chewy and crusty than piping hot. Once again, I just don't get it.

So instead of thinking of things like "hits the spot" or "piping hot", I'd rather concentrate on other words such as plethora or philharmonic and phrases like "it is what it is". Everyone has their trigger and mine is words.