Before I get down to the business of this particular column I must offer an apology and a clarification. In my column in Between the Lines for November 2003, I wrote

Grothe gives an unattributed example (DMQW, op. cit.): Most people go to great pains to avoid great pains.

Another unattributed quote with that character is this (DMWQ, July 6-12, 2003): The worst memory is the one that remembers everything.

Dr. Grothe gently and graciously corrected me and clarified that those two of my quoted examples of paradoxes are his own creations, not unattributed quotations. For my error I apologize, both to Dr. Grothe and to you, my readers. Turning now to the subject of this column, let me introduce you to a resource with which all verbivores should be acquainted, namely a feature called "Curious Word of the Day," available online at the website of The Common Reader www.commonreader.com/cgi-bin/rbox/ido.cgi/word/wordofday.html. The Common Reader is a bookseller that publishes a fascinating hardcopy catalog. If you are a bibliophile who likes to browse book catalogs I recommend it to you highly, both for its range of offerings and for its engrossing blurbs. You can order the catalog from the website, as well as ordering their books online. There are other interesting daily features on the website, which I leave to your curiosity and exploration.

The following is an example of "Curious Word of the Day," for October 2, 2003:

guinea pig
1. A short, plump, short-eared, furry member of the rat family without an external tail, commonly raised as a laboratory experimental animal, and also prized as a children's pet. Hence, 2. A person used in laboratory testing. Sometimes human guinea pig. Children are guinea pigs for the moral assumptions of their parents. [In the language laboratory this label wins special honors as a misnomer, for this creature is neither a pig, nor is it from Guinea in Africa. It is a rodent and native to South America. It is so called because it was first brought to England in XVIII by Guineamen, in effect merchant-slavers who put into Guinea for slaves to carry to South America and the West Indies before returning to England with goods picked up along the way, the last cargo before the eastward crossing being acquired with the proceeds of the slave traffic. So "creature brought by the Guineamen"; and "pig" fancifully because the creature is plump and can be said to resemble a small furry pig more than it does a rat.]

This word of the day is excerpted from A Third Browser's Dictionary by John Ciardi, available exclusively from A Common Reader. Copyright © 1987 by the Estate of John Ciardi

The title of the feature notwithstanding, sometimes the day’s definition is for a phrase or other term of more than one word, as in this example.

John Ciardi (1918–86) was the Boston-born child of Italian immigrants. He has more than forty volumes of poetry to his credit, as well as an acclaimed translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy and A Third Browser’s Dictionary. His How Does a Poem Mean? is the instructive reflection of a poet on poetry that is widely used in high school and college poetry classes. He taught at the University of Kansas City, Harvard, and Rutgers; appeared on National Public Radio and educational television; and received many awards and honors.
(www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?
45442B7C000C000C0E, 1/15/2004)

Ciardi’s A Browser’s Dictionary (a set of three volumes, First . . ., Second . . ., Third . . ., available from The Common Reader) is a treasure, a historical dictionary of great erudition and elegant directness. When you have an occasion to be in the library, take the time to do a little browsing in it. In the meantime, get your daily fix at The Common Reader’s “Curious Word of the Day.”

I leave you with another puzzler from one of Marilyn Vos Savant’s readers, Daniel Tostado of San Diego (“Ask Marilyn,” Parade Magazine, November 3, 2003).

Here's a partial list of words: thorn, shout, and seat. Which [one] of the following completes the list: sting, stake, stew, or trash?

Until next time, send me your solutions (or suggestions or complaints or stumpers) at hfox@juno.com or 2005 Burroughs Drive, Dayton, Ohio 45406.