Words

When in DC, we went to what I kept calling the Word Museum. 

My friends kept asking if we were doing the Excel Museum after that. I laughed, but honestly, it took me like three more days and another telling of that joke to get it. 

It was the Airplane "flying this plane is something different altogether" joke all over again.  

But the place is actually called Planet Word. 

It's a great place if you're a pedophile, since everyone there is on a grade school field trip. 

Even when you included the chaperons and the docents, we were the oldest ones there. 

The building, a renovated schoolhouse, is amazingly well done. The contents have a lot of potential, but for the population they have, it is probably just right. They play with words and different parts of language and speech, and not just from the U.S. 

This wall was interactive, where you could call out a word and they'd tell you about its origins. 

Here, you got to go to other countries and learn about their language. We went to Iceland, where there are only 350k folks there, and their language is insular and protective. They do not use any words from outside of Iceland - they'd make one up, if needed. 

But I got learn how names come about and what I'd be called in that country:  my first name, as is. My last name would be my father's first name + son (as I am his son). 

I thought the elevator alone was worth it. 

It was interesting, I just felt it was missing something. But then I'm not on a 1st grade field trip. 

Go ahead:  guess. 

Song by: the Monkees