T42 N 24T

trichinobezoar teratogenesis triskaidekaphobia titanomachia

Yes, today is one of those days when I suddenly wake up imbued with the urge to t'se someone, over a nice hot cuppa, just as the old song goes. You know how it is. Suddenly, in one hellish glimpse into the abyss, it isn't your life or your diary which unfolds before your mind's eye. Instead, it's your thesaurus, or your technobiblion, or wherever you store words which resonate with ideas (or ideas which resonate with words - terrifying!)

It all began with a furball lying in the corridor. The word trichinobezoar took the opportunity to leap into my head, and that set off a cascade. This is a nifty word - it describes the product of a process in which hair accumulates in the system and compacts itself into a disgusting mass of material which cannot really be digested. Other similar words are keratobezoar (fingernails and/or toenails) and phytobezoar (plant material, like what happens when you eat too many persimmons at one go).

Yep, it's one of those days.