A lot. Our “avatar” (also the main image on the blog page) is an illustration of an evil, dragon-like creature called The Jabberwock, which is the subject of a poem called “Jabberwocky,” written more than a hundred years ago by an author who liked to play with words. I like to play with words when I write, and the author just made words up and had them mean what he wanted to in this poem.

Reading is like that. Words only mean what they do because a bunch of people all decided that that’s what they mean.

Kind of unfair, and playful, no?

(scene from the current Alice in Wonderland movie, above)

It’s my favorite poem, and, over the years, it’s become a classic. Which proves that you can just make things up as you go along — and get praised for it — if you do it well.

Here is how Humpty Dumpty, a character in the book Alice Through The Looking Glass (the sequel to Alice in Wonderland) explains what it means, in case you read the link, above, and want to know. He breaks down all the weird words. And then you’re still scratching your head…