Busted! Horrific words to tweak the hubby’s knickers

Last Sunday, in the course of discussing some other matter, I happened to mention I had an irrational dislike of the word “trousers.” This idea of hating a perfectly good word for no particular reason is known as a word aversion. So I suggested you people send me your word-aversion words, which in retrospect may have been a mistake since I have spent the better part of last few days opening email lists of words you hate.

Some of you missed the “irrational” part and suggested words that are misused or over-used, such as “irregardless” or “paradigm.”

Most of you, unsurprisingly, had a pretty firm grip on “irrational.”

► “‘Meat’ and I don’t know why. I love steak, pork, chicken. I just can’t say ‘meat.’ Yuck!”

► “Another terrible word is ‘spouse.’ Why? I don’t know — just is.”

► “I don’t like the word ‘folks.’ It sounds like a bunch of hicks.”

► “I hate the word ‘vomit.’ … Birds feed their young that way.”

Also: billfold, panties, trousers, hernia, hemorrhoids, puke, fart, mucous, tweak, homage, locavore, organic, pink, busted, galoshes, hubby, knickers, goulash, horrific, enthused, temperature-wise, slather, pee, almost always …

There are more, but now I’m starting to hate some of these words for no good reason, so I believe we’ll just leave it at that. No more, OK?

It’s fall because the quail are back. Where do they go in summer?

The same places they go in spring, autumn and winter. In the summer, they are most active in the early morning and evening. Maybe that’s why you didn’t notice them.