Entrance
The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken By Storm
Tiger Style Records

I used to be a good speller. The other day though, I had trouble even spelling cappuccino. Not to mention macchiato. Just figured I knew it. So I wrote it. It took someone else to tell me that it's wrong. I used to be the one people would come to when they came to a word that just didn't look right when they wrote it. Now, I don't even notice that it didn't look right.

Is it that I know more words now, at 41, than I did when I was 12 and spelling bee alternate behind Luann Langhoff in the sixth grade? But I'm not sure that I really do know any more. Than I did then even. Sam Clemens said something like Know the Dollar Words but Use the Nickel ones. But why should I even know the Dollar Words if I'm just gonna nickel?

Heck, it's not like I'm reading Hawking or anything. Well, actually, I'm not reading anything right now. The last thing I read was this Rick Moody piece on "winnowing" 69 Love Songs down to a single disc. Which we've all done. It was really good, except for all those darn Dollar Words. Why them? Why there?

Needless to say, I didn't look any of them up. I don't even know where my dictionary is. Do I still have one? Does my computer have some kind of dictionary program where I could find out what "acerbic', "laconic", and "aphasic" really mean?

So, yeah, I'm between books. Been listening to this Entrance record a lot though.

And I understand everything.

Copyright © 2003 Alice Kenner