You Say Potato, I Say Bear

Today a headline in the local paper read something like this, “Man Survives Ursine Scare.” Being a decent student, I was able to recall with minimal to intense concentration that Ursine meant bear. I am a big fan of easy-speak and disliked having to interpret the headlines so early in the day. “Bear Scare” had a better ring to me, but maybe the reporter had already used his rhyming quota for the month. The rest of my train ride was consumed with remembering similar terminology and I came up with porcine, equine, canine, and bovine and then I stopped right there and couldn’t think of another one. Every day that my brain pulls these bits of information out of the random files is a good day for me. Laters.