Favorite words

#2. Sneeze.

Essentially what I think has come to define American convenience--ease packaged in a tin* and served with a convulsion at mach 0.85--has been preserved through clades of speciation for us, and even refined into the cataclysmic fit of warmth and happiness that it is now. I can only hope that every so often you feel the peppery tickle at the base of your forebrain that is the overture to the spicy Pompeii of nasal schmutz to be ejected out of your face faster than Bill Clinton can spell (but not define) 'is'. Indeed, to stifle the sneeze is patently un-American.

For such a beautiful word to signify such sublime (if brief) rapture is nothing if not heady congruence.

When I sneeze--or even contemplate the word--I forget about the war, waterboarding, torture, warrantless wiretapping, Guantanamo, steroids,** the CIA videotapes, Dick Cheney's man-sized safe, and George W.'s college transcript...***

Just for a split-second.

J'oublie tout. Tellement, je me sens que je jouie.

* Do you remember your periodic table?
** People who say 'roids' should be injected with 50 g of methylprednisolone and left in a TB ward for 6 weeks.
*** I could go on, but I've just sneezed.