And Now For a Horse of a Different Color

Less dark at least.

I have great affection for words that begin with an S and a consonant. Slick, smack, swift, stark. I like how they sound and what they mean. I like them in fiction, Wolverine’s snickt! and Potter’s snitch. I prefer the single syllable words because they have pizaz, and their counterparts tend to be less pleasant like study, or god forbid, student (if its not self referential). Stars, the fiercely burning heavenly bodies are great, unlike their human namesakes. These words make great weapons, spears, swords, and grammar sporks. They can be interesting verbs, like sneer, spew, steal, and scorn. Without them we couldn’t make our silences stony or Joes sloppy. They are vital to many a genre, whether for the slaying of fantasy’s dragons or the science in our fiction. Our live would be out of shape without spheres and squares and the scalene of triangles. Our children wouldn’t be the same without slides, spills and stickiness. Don’t you think loss of all that is quite a scary concept, even if you really can’t get rid of that stain?