Spelling?

We just watched the spelling bee on TV, which was pretty interesting. I have to wonder how smart these kids are beyond knowing origins of prefixes and countries of origin and whatnot... They should have a "one word, two word, hyphenated" contest where kids have to figure out if words like "backyard" or "streetlight" is one word, two words, or hyphenated. I have lots of trouble figuring those things out.

I've heard the word "xenophobia" and its derivations (correct usage of a word?) many times recently, mostly (okay, exclusively) on NPR/WBUR. I've never, ever heard that word used in any new story or conversation or anywhere else, and they've been using it like it's going out of style on NPR. Which made me feel stupid, because hell, I didn't know what it meant. So I looked it up in the dictionary I won back in high school for being a good English student (it's a funny dictionary, because it brags about being the best dictionary for the 1990s), and now I know what it means. I thought it meant something much more complicated... but I guess it's just fear of foreign things, such as people or cultures. Woo wee, so exciting...

Also, Dennis and other polker folks were wondering where the term "cold turkey" came from, and from two of my court-reporter reference books, I found two different explanations. One had something to do with cold turkey being a bland meal without side dishes, and one had to do with "talking cold turkey," like talking about something in a blunt way. And both references were pretty believable and trustworthy, but I have to go with the latter, since I can't really wrap my head around the concept of the whole bland meal thing. It just didn't make any sense, for God's sake. Come on!