You Learn Something New Every Day

Posted on February 24, 2005

To the crossword editor of the Washington Post:

I’m sorry I called your comment line this afternoon and griped you out for the clue in today’s puzzle that read “Mortise’s partner,” on the grounds that everyone knows that the partner of a tenon is a mortis, making a “mortis and tenon joint”.

Furthermore, I’m sorry that I continued on to indicate that your careless spelling caused five people in our breakroom at work to waste half an hour trying to figure out what a “mortise” is while doing the crossword over lunch.

Additionally, I’m sorry that I indicated that the editor of a crossword puzzle for a major newspaper making such a mistake was evidence of a severe lack of synaptic activity on the part of said editor.

I’m sorry about these things mostly because it turns out that the word is indeed spelled “mortise”.

Oooooooops.

Anyway, please disregard my call. Thank you.

Yours acrostically,

Jason