Homonymaniacal

This week, totally out of the blue, Larkin asked me why the Beatles named themselves after insects. Finally, something I didn't have to look up online! I told her about the fact that it was an homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, but (and this is what really got her attention) the band name was not actually spelled like insect beetles.

She was absolutely taken with the beat/beet distinction and was thrilled to learn there was a whole class of words that sounded the same but were spelled differently and had different meanings. She asked me to spell some more homonyms out for her and of course the old chestnut witch/which immediately came to mind. I spelled them, she tried to repeat them, she got lost in the letters, she asked me to repeat them. This happened several times before it occurred to me that pen and paper were invented for a reason.

I wish I had grabbed a clean sheet of paper, but I didn't know how long this fascination was going to last so I started our list on a scrap piece. Should you want to know where to buy dry ice in Medford, you're in luck. I absentmindedly doodled pictures next to each word (a witch's hat for "witch" and a question mark for "which") to illustrate the distinction for her. It didn't occur to me that I was setting a precedent I might have a hard time maintaining.

The first one Larkin came up with on her own was dam/damn. I'm so proud. Emile took over for me at some point and introduced some words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. (That's my oh-so-subtle way of pointing out that I'm not responsible for *all* the lame pictures... just most of them.)

This was not just an idle entertainment. Larkin was so excited that she ran to Emile as soon as he emerged from his office at the end of his work day and jumped up and down while she (loudly) described what we were doing and invited him to join in. That kind of enthusiasm can't be taught, bought or (sigh) bottled in a hip flask for me to take out while doing the taxes for the book exchange.