Sometimes when you're primed -- talked, seen, heard, have, prepared -- about something, then that something suddenly pops up everywhere. Take for example when you buy a new car. Now when you go and drive it around you notice, more than you ever did before, that other people, other damn people, have the nerve to copy you and drive that car too. Or when I started practice teaching in elementary schools, now I notice so many kids. I never noticed that there were so many rugrats in this world.
So the other day I was talking with my school friend about a tall vapid blonde we had in our class. She would, and this stuff really happened, file her nails and read people magazine while other people were doing their presentation. Now that isn't even the best part, the best part is the teacher was sitting one row diagonally behind her.
We reminisced on how the blonde always used meaty words in her questions/answers to the teacher. There was one word in particular she used all the time, insular. Every time she said insular she would find new ways to butcher the meaning.
Insular is a rare word. I hardly ever hear or see it. But now that I've been primed by the conversation I had with my school friend, of course it showed up the very next day.
HERE is a front page headline by the Toronto Star quoting Canadians on why they dislike Torontonians: Insular!
