Things that make you go "hmm"

While this "jinx" thing is still fresh in your mind, I've got a bone to pick with Madd Dogg about one of the rules of the Jinx. (See "You Owe Me a Coke, Motherf**ker")

Madd Dogg is correct that our carpool has a rule that a jinx can be based only on words, not sounds. That rule (like all of our rules) evolved after the issue actually arose in the carpool. As I recall it, Madd Dogg and I made the same sound at the same time -- I think the sound was "hmm." Anyway, I immediately called a "jinx," counted to ten, and informed Madd Dogg that she owed me a coke. She protested (which incidentally broke another rule: if someone jinxes you, you cannot talk, even if you suspect that the jinx is somehow defective). After a vote, the rest of the carpool took her side. Thus, a jinx could thereafter be based only on words.

I was, shall we say, dubious. The rule struck me as stupid and arbitrary. I mean, honestly: Why should words and sounds be treated differently so long as two people say or make them at the same time? (Answer: They shouldn't be. And if Madd Dogg had been the first to jinx someone based on a sound, she would have been the one arguing that they are fair game.)

Well, if you are like me, you are petty, and willing to hold a grudge until your dying day. Luckily, I didn't have to wait until that day. As Madd Dogg mentioned, she -- quote/unquote -- "jinxed" me a couple of weeks ago with the word "oh." Eager to smack her upside the head with her own dumb rule, I told her that "oh" wasn't a word. She pointed out that it was a word because it was in the dictionary. At which point, my grammar admittedly became impaired and I told her that "There's a lot of shit in the dictionary that aren't words."

And that's right; there are a lot of "words" in the dictionary that are not actually words. Take, for example, this one, which was the very basis for the "no sounds" rule in the first place:

H'm or hmm, which Webster's defines as an "interj." that is "used typically to express thoughtful absorption, hesitation, doubt, or perplexity."

The inconsistency of Madd Dogg's "dictionary" rule makes me want to express hesitation, doubt, and perplexity right now.

Hmm.