That being said, people should never expect writers to dredge their souls for the choicest, rarest phrase during mundane conversation. A woman I dated once demanded to know why I swore so often. “People as creative as you can come up with more creative words,” she said. Overlooking her own redundant turn of phrase I replied, “Creative people swear so we can devote our energy to creative phrases in more appropriate situations.” It was our last date, but that may also be because I took her to a game at Tigers Stadium (the old one, Briggs Stadium in Corktown) and, I found out later, she hated baseball.

It was, it turns out, one of those serendipitous moments when a spontaneous quip unintentionally drove the relationship over a precipice. Serendipitous because it never occurred to look down to see the wreckage which spoke more about the relationship than my comment did to how we use language.

By the way, I reblogged your article on Wind Eggs.