Because we spend way too much time using the same words over and over. . .
1. Calumny
a) The hair and skin gathered under a laptop keyboard
b) The sound a calamity makes
c) A false statement meant to maliciously malign
d) A new type of yogurt that speeds digestion
e) The exhaustion of vacationing
2. Acedia
a) An even faster Amtrak train service to New York
b) The problem with journalism, according to Jimmy Breslin
c) Extra pocket change
d) A term used to describe summer Congressional interns
e) The crater of a recently exploded volcano
3. Tutela Valui
a) The name of a new Russian pop girl group
b) A Latin phrase, meaning “Prize tortoise.”
c) The tattoo inscription on the belly of a powerful woman in New York politics
d) A new psychedelic street drug popular on Ibiza
e) A phrase, meaning “too much value,” rarely used in politics
4. Cognoscenti
a) A benign brain tumor
b) The word that won the last 2007 National Spelling Bee
c) A sweaty press pool
d) A Marxist plot for global domination
e) A fancy word that experts use to describe other experts
(Answers are posted in comments, or you can click the links above for a full explanation of how these words have been used, and why they matter.)
ALSO: Watch this. It’s a new video of an act I hope never gets old.