H
ave you ever taken a vacation that’s planned to every nanosec-
ond? At 9:37 we visit the Garden of Standonburg and spend an
hour and eighteen minutes there, then we reach the Pamponi
Museum at 11:09, and then . . . Well, that’s not a vacation, is it?
Sometimes it’s best to let yourself roam with no plan, no schedule,
no rules, no aim, and nothing to guide you except an open mind
and an open heart.
This chapter’s words are collected in just that spirit. A word
tickles our fancy and leads us to some others that bring forth yet
more words.We skip some of them, move ahead, or perhaps take a
leisurely stroll through the dictionary. The words selected have no
common thread—at least as far as we know. There is no theme to
constrain our word choices during the next five days. Or maybe
that’s the theme. Well, you decide.
telic (TEL-ik,TEE-lik)
adjective Tending toward a goal; expressing a purpose.
From Greek telikos,from telos (end). The word telephone comes from
the same root.
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CHAPTER 43
Miscellaneous
Words II
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● “A telic motivation starts with isolating a need and then feel-
ing anxious about resolving it.”
—Reason
saltant (SAL-tuhnt)
adjective Leaping, jumping, or dancing.
From Latin saltant-, stem of saltans,present participle of saltare (to
dance), frequentative of salire (to jump). Other words derived from

noun A compliment that a person has heard and offers to repeat
to the one complimented in exchange for a compliment made
about himself or herself.
From trade + last.
180
ANOTHER WORD A DAY
The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience,
the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
—
M
ARCUS
T
ULLIUS
C
ICERO
, statesman, orator,
and author (106–43
B
.
C
.
E
.)
Urban Nation
Conurbation is the perfect description of Atlanta. While the
map shows different “city” names in the ten counties around
the city, at street level all you see is one endless succession of
multilane roads, strip malls, and housing subdivisions.
—Robert H. Rouse, Lilburn, Georgia
Memories of Trade-lasts

● “I had an inkling of some subtle spark to which his tardigrade
pace served as the perfect foil.”
—America
MISCELLANEOUS WORDS II
181
No one ever ever won a chess game by betting on each move.
Sometimes you have to move backward to get a step forward.
—
A
MAR
G
OPAL
B
OSE
, electrical engineer, inventor,
and founder, Bose Corporation (1929–)
I had a high school teacher in the 1940s who assigned my
weekly theme papers two grades. I wanted to excel to please
my parents, but I felt so separated from my peers, who mostly
got Cs and some Bs, that I would turn my paper in the day
after it was due and teacher would put what she called the
“tardigrade” above a line and the “earned grade” beneath it.
Only the tardigrade was reported. My As were reported as B s
and Bs as Cs.
—John Granath, Laguna Woods, California
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W
hen my daughter turned six, she received a magic kit as a birth-
day present. She was very excited, saying,“Now I can be like
Harry Potter!” She opened the cardboard box and a bunch of strings,

To store the dairy with a brimming pail.”
—“Publius Vergilius Maro”; translated from the Latin by John Dryden
pythoness (PIE-thuh-nis)
noun 1. A woman with the power of divination. 2. The priestess
of Apollo at Delphi in Greek mythology.
Ultimately from Greek puthon (python).
● “The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks
these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and
demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists the stomach for
these juices, appealing as a pythoness appeals to her god.”
—Honoré de Balzac,“The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee,”
translated from the French by Robert Onopa
lambent (LAM-buhnt)
adjective 1. Flickering lightly over a surface. 2. Softly glowing.
3. Marked by lightness or grace (in an expression).
From Latin lambent, stem of lambens,present participle of lambere
(to lick).
W ORDS THAT AREN’T WHAT THEY APPEAR TO BE
183
Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius.
A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein.
—
J
OE
T
HEISMANN
, former quarterback (1949 –)
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● “With that, [Richard Hawley] launches into ‘Baby,You’re My
Light,’ a grown-up love song of delicate beauty, featuring a lam-

CHWEITZER
, philosopher, physician,
musician, and Nobel laureate (1875–1965)
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