Surreptition is the the watchword of the infantile.
David had no idea where the text had come from. All he knew was that he now held in his hands a postcard with no return address, a postcard whose postmark was illegible. On the front was a picture of the Chateau Frontenac, illuminated by spotlights on a wintry Canadian night. The text was scrawled in a juvenile but legible hand, reading "Surreptition is the watchword of the infantile."
David had never been to Canada, but he recognized the Chateau Frontenac from eighth-grade French. He also had never (as far back as he could remember) been sent a postcard. Perhaps when he was much younger, in a time that computers and the Internet had obscured, a postcard had found its way via the USPS into his hands. But all of this was simply window dressing for the bizarre and nonsensical message he was apparently meant to take to heart. "Surreptition is the watchword of the infantile."
David, considering himself to know quite of the few of the more obscure creations of the beautiful though mongrel English language was stymied by "surreptition." He certainly was familiar with the "surreptitious," and in some part of his mind could recall having read (more than once) an aphorism which followed the framework of: "________ is the watchword of the ___________." But he was unable to grasp it from the depths of his unconscious. Knowing full well that it was most likely not a word (but acknowledging the self-doubt he felt on all matters, ever), he walked to the living room where an old dictionary was wedged between a child's encyclopedia of animals c. the 1970's and a relatively modern re-print of "Foundation" on his bookshelf. Of course he could have simply turned on his computer, opened his browser and asked Google "define: surreptition." Of course, he knew that he would eventually do this, but for the time being he felt that thumbing through the frighteningly thin pages of a dictionary would be the most decisive action he could take. After all, someone somewhere sometime on the Internet had surely used the word "surreptition." This first step would go a long way towards establishing the word's validity in his conflicted mind. Besides, it afforded him the oppurtunity to smoke a cigarette.
David had no idea where the text had come from. All he knew was that he now held in his hands a postcard with no return address, a postcard whose postmark was illegible. On the front was a picture of the Chateau Frontenac, illuminated by spotlights on a wintry Canadian night. The text was scrawled in a juvenile but legible hand, reading "Surreptition is the watchword of the infantile."
David had never been to Canada, but he recognized the Chateau Frontenac from eighth-grade French. He also had never (as far back as he could remember) been sent a postcard. Perhaps when he was much younger, in a time that computers and the Internet had obscured, a postcard had found its way via the USPS into his hands. But all of this was simply window dressing for the bizarre and nonsensical message he was apparently meant to take to heart. "Surreptition is the watchword of the infantile."
David, considering himself to know quite of the few of the more obscure creations of the beautiful though mongrel English language was stymied by "surreptition." He certainly was familiar with the "surreptitious," and in some part of his mind could recall having read (more than once) an aphorism which followed the framework of: "________ is the watchword of the ___________." But he was unable to grasp it from the depths of his unconscious. Knowing full well that it was most likely not a word (but acknowledging the self-doubt he felt on all matters, ever), he walked to the living room where an old dictionary was wedged between a child's encyclopedia of animals c. the 1970's and a relatively modern re-print of "Foundation" on his bookshelf. Of course he could have simply turned on his computer, opened his browser and asked Google "define: surreptition." Of course, he knew that he would eventually do this, but for the time being he felt that thumbing through the frighteningly thin pages of a dictionary would be the most decisive action he could take. After all, someone somewhere sometime on the Internet had surely used the word "surreptition." This first step would go a long way towards establishing the word's validity in his conflicted mind. Besides, it afforded him the oppurtunity to smoke a cigarette.
