My friend Webster

I've always been an avid reader. Because of my voracious need to read I have, what I think, is an expanded vocabulary. The dictionary has always been my companion. Growing up we had an old Funk and Wagnalls (remember Laugh In - look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls). I loved that old dictionary. It had a navy blue hard cover and the little half moon cutouts with gold embossed letters. It smelled like old books and was pretty worn but it held a wealth of knowledge. Any unfamiliar word that I came across in my reading could be found in the old F and W. I also had a prized Webster's notebook dictionary - the kind that are 3 hole punched to fit in school binders. I could underline and highlight in it without getting in trouble.
After I left home I bought a hardback Websters. It wasn't as nice as the old Funk and Wagnalls, but it soon became my good friend. I have relied on it's definitions for many years now and it has never let me down.
A few years ago I began to hear words in the news that I was unfamiliar with, the first that comes to mind was the term, rhetoric. This was back during the Clinton years. I looked it up in my Websters and found several variations of it, but finally understood what was meant by "political rhetoric." There was also another word, which I'm pretty sure I know the meaning of, that was in the news a lot during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Just let me say, if you don't know the definition of that word, you don't need to be having it. Hmmmmm. Now I found myself in the midst of daily news casts, internet news and written papers and magazines filled with words that are unfamiliar to me. Once again Webster has become my good friend. He gave me the definition of vitriol (translated - to cause pain), incendiary (to arouse strife), and several more words that have been used in the media lately. Webster lives on my end table now, beside the remote controls. I wish I didn't Webster anymore, but with the social and political climate of our country now I think he will be a constant companion.