In other news, as I broke out my Thesaurus in order to write that last post, I ran across a great verb: Niggle: To be overattentive to details; to find fault in a petty way. Now is that not an awesome word? I need to use that sometime. Anyway, the reason I mentioned that word is because it is directly below the adjective Niggardly, meaning to be meager, scanty, or stingy. This more than slightly deragatory adjective is found, repeatedly I might add, in the best selling novel Rainbow six, by Tom Clancy. When I first stumbled upon the word, it rocked and heaved and wobbled and tottered around the ethical portion of my brain. "Why would Clancy frequently choose this particular adjective, when it has such a negative tone?" The question danced through my mind as if it were doing the Tootsie Roll with my subconscious. After pondering Clancy's position for several days, I proposed a perilous picture which was promptly perforated by my peer's pointed proposal: Clancy is not racist, but chooses to use such a word purely because it is rarely used. Good point.