I learned a new word tonight

I try and get the school newspaper everyday. Not because I like to know what's going on around campus or in the world, really, I could care less about that. What I love about getting the newspaper is the crossword puzzle.

I usually don't finish the crossword puzzle, but I can usually make a dent in it. I let them pile up in backpack until its twice as heavy, because that way when I get bored there is always a crossword to work on. One of my goal in life is to be good at crosswords and be able to finish most of them, except the really hard ones.

Monday's puzzles are always the easiest, so naturally they're my favorite. I almost have today's finished, I only have 6 letters left, but staring at them was making my brain hurt. After dinner Brooke, Elsa, Brian, and I were working on the crossword.

(By the way, Elsa and Brian got engaged on Friday!!! They're getting married in Salt Lake on June 10th!)

Elsa and Brian were working on one copy, and Brooke and I were working on the other, and we were trying to finish before the other group did. I really like this crossword. One of the clues was "Disney Mermaid" which of course is Ariel, who is my favorite princess and one of my favorite movies. We actually did really good, and I felt really clever a couple times. But there was one letter that we could not figure out!

We had all of the letters for both of the intersecting words, but we could not figure out the last letter. It was very frustrating. Both Brooke and I went through the entire alphabet several times but none of the letters completed both words and made sense with the clues!

So finally Brooke and I broke down and Goggled it.

The across clue was for a R&B singer from the 60s whose first name was Marilyn, and the down clue had to do with bumming a cigarette.

Marilyn's last name is McCoo. We kept thinking it could be McGoo or McBoo, but both of those seemed just plain weird. Not that McCoo is normal...

But the really interesting thing we learned was the answer to the down clue. The answer was CADGE. According to dictionary.com cadge means "borrowing without the intention of returning." I feel so much smarter knowing that word. Like I could graduate tomorrow just because I know a word like cadge.

I'm also determined to start using cadge in everyday conversation. For example, "Can I cadge a piece of gum from you?" And then people will hear me and think, "wow, that girl is so smart, that was such an obscure word!"