Long, long ago in an English class far away – junior high – our teacher asked us the difference between flotsam and jetsam. I don’t think anyone knew, so he told us. Or it might have been a question posed by our text book that the teacher then re-asked. Anyway, I’ve known it since then. I can’t ever remember ever using that knowledge in my professional writing, but so what? Vocabulary is its own reward.

Later I wondered, does The Thing count as flotsam or jetsam? That’s going to stay an unanswered question.

That same book (I think) also posed the question: Would a gnu gnaw gneiss? The consensus was no, a gnu would not gnaw gneiss. And a gnostic wouldn’t gnaw gneiss gneither.