The Gift That Keeps on Giving

When I was in college, I took several courses in linguistics-- not because I needed it to support my (nonexistent) career plans, or as a requirement for my course of study, but because I found the subject interesting. For one course, I had a professor who was one of the editors of Webster's New World Dictionary. He was tall and thin, with angular features, a bushy head of salt-and-pepper hair and a very erudite manner of speaking. Let's call him Dr. G.

One day in class, at the front of the room where Dr. G could not ignore it, someone knocked over a cup of coffee, which proceeded to spill onto the floor right in front of him. Dr. G looked up and asked, in all seriousness, "Does anyone have any Kleenices?"

Now, to find that funny, you have to know that the plural of index is indices, and codex, codices, which obviously Dr. G knew (and I did too). I might add as a personal corollary that I have never heard the words indices, codices, or any similar word uttered aloud, even once, in my entire life.

Over 30 years later, it still never fails to make me laugh out loud (a smile and faint chuckle, that is) whenever I think of it. I don't remember what the class was about, but I will remember that question forever. Thought of it again today, when I ran out of Kleenices at my desk at work and had to go buy some. Thank you, Dr. G.