Afraid you may be losing your perspicacity*? An opportunity to test yourself is just hours away. But what if the questions come from a guy who, according to an article in the New York Times, “has a tattoo of the phonetic vowel chart on his back”? Steve Kleinedler, owner of the aforementioned tattoo, will be presenting a Define-a-thon at the Ann Arbor Book Festival on Saturday, May 19. According to the article, Define-a-thons, sponsored by Houghton Mifflin’s American Heritage Dictionaries, are sweeping the nation, and attracting huge crowds to witness contestants battling for largest lexicon. I, for one, am relieved not to be competing—I had to keep dictionary.com open while reading the article—tintinnabulation, anyone?

*The first person to correctly identify this reference gets a prize**!
**The prize is the receipt of my approbation and obeisance.

Yay!

"Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

Tintinabulation is from edgar allen poes peom the bells

oooh! extra points for etymology!

This would be a cool blog to do periodically, Sancho.

man oh man, i had so much fun participating in the define-a-thon!

i certainly regret my lack of background in turkish edged weapons, and will never forget to bring my yataghan the next time i try to hit the silk road.

thanks again for letting me be a part of this great event - let's do it again soon!

matthew graff

I'm so glad you had fun, Matthew! I agree--it was a great event, though I was somewhat shocked at the difficulty of those last words!

Hmm... maybe some sort of Definition/Spelling Bee/Trivial Pursuit tournement for grown ups?

Take care!

Sancho Panza
(Jamie)