What's your favorite word?
Last week, I was part of a panel at STC's Technical Communication Summit called "Inside the Technical Communicator's Studio", hosted by STC Fellow Barbara Giammona. I've never seen the original TV show...I'm not sure if that helped or not.
Anyway, each segment ends with 10 questions, and the first question is, "What's your favorite word?" I like a lot of words, but my favorite word is "Dam". And, of course, it has a story :-)
Jesse, like many kids, said "dada" (\'da-da\) first, followed shortly by "mama" (\'mä-mə). But at some point, he realized that there were times when it didn't matter which one of us responded to him (as long as one of us did), and a third term was born: da-ma. After awhile, it got shortened to "Dam", and at some point, Jesse only used it when talking to me.
Of course, it meant that trips (like to the grocery store) got to be really interesting. Here's this tow-headed, blue-eyed little boy, pointing out things in the store that he wanted me to buy. "Dam, cookie!" "Dam, candy!" "Dam, milk!" And I was so used to it being my name that it wasn't until I saw people's faces that I realized what it sounded like to people who weren't aware.
"Dam" disappeared as my name when Jesse was 6. I'm not sure why he stopped using it or even exactly when, but it was just gone one day. But it's still my favorite word :-)
What's your favorite word?
