Where's Stuart Berg Flexner When I Need Him?

Don't you hate it when you can't put your hands on a favorite reference book? As a "snowbird," I'm often in that position. I reach out to the bookshelf, expecting my perfect bound friend to be within grasp, only to realize that it didn't migrate with me. Short of hauling an entire library with me twice a year, I am doomed to making this mistake on a regular basis. I've already bought a duplicate of my favorite dictionary (you know, that five-pound job that says "alright" is not really "all right"), but buying dupes of all of them is out of the question. Sigh.

Tonight I'm missing a couple of gems I own that were written by Stuart Berg Flexner. If you aren't fascinated by words, stop reading here, or you'll think I'm crazy. Flexner has a long list of appealing titles, but the two in my library far away are "Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past," and "I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated Treasury of American Words and Phrases." From the mere length of the titles, one might safely assume that Flexner is fascinated by words, too. Reading the books confirms this. They tell the stories of words, how they evolved from other languages, and then how their usage grew and changed within our own language. The stories tell when and where they first appear in print, and what the contextual meaning was then, and then when it appears later with a newer, different connotation. Call me nuts; I love it. My original excuse for reading the books was to make sure that my historical fiction was written in language correct for its era. I was wondering if my main character would use the words "kids" (to refer to children) and "okay" to mean, um, okay. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. I'll confess that I skimmed over sections having to do with football and boxing, but the rest was great reading.

Now I'm trying to think of an excuse to buy another Flexner book I just spotted on the Internet. It has the longest title I've ever seen, so it must be good: "The Pessimist's Guide to History: An Irresistable Compendium of Catastrophes, Barbarities, Massacres and Mayhem from the Big Bang to the New Millenium." Who could resist this one?!