Later I would blame the hypnotist, but the truth was that the idea of laughing at the letter “Q” was so funny that I ended up laughing whenever I heard it. It presented problems in geometry class, of course, and a glance at a friend whenever a quadrilateral was drawn on the board – P, giggle, R, S – but the laughter was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There had always been words like that: when I was ten, it was “salami”, which I insist is a funny word.
I didn’t realize “peregrination” had that power until it was the word of the day.
I have only heard one person (at least one of you knows who that is, a few of you might be able to guess) use the word "peregrination" colloquially in my life (and I grew up with a lawyer father, so ten-dollar-words were not uncommon). It is not in a context that I will share. But let me just say that, apparently, whenever I see that word now, I laugh. Which is better than the alternatives, all told. Because now I am giggling myself to sleep.
Also, some of you have seen me spontaneously burst into giggles for no apparent reason, and when you ask me what is so very funny, I have not been able to answer. Well, the reason I can rarely answer is because it very well might be "Q", or "Salami", or "Peregrination", or one of a myriad of other words that are hilariously amusing and I might not even know about yet.
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