Pondering just how marvelously communication can be mangled with incompatible defintions - here’s a lovely example:

Tonight the eldest demonspawn made dinner, which of course, was a Good Thing! Then the younger demonspawn started squawking about her sister adding spices to the Mexican rice, which got my attention because Angst is the only person in the house who likes Toxic Hell’s fire sauce (the rest of us don’t even use the mild sauce)…so “adding spices” is immediately suspect when she does it.

“It’s only taco seasoning!” Angst protested. I relaxed; the only taco seasoning we have in the house is mild. Then I heard Anxiety attempting to pronounce a new-to-her word, reading off a label - “Mom, what is cain pepper?”

I stopped relaxing, and grabbed the bottle. “Cayenne pepper?!” I shrieked at Angst. “Cayenne pepper is not ‘taco seasoning’! It’s super-spicy! It’s the spiciest kind of pepper there is!” (Whether that’s true or not, it’s the spiciest kind of pepper in my freaking house, only brought into my house by the former roommate, soon to be delivered to the former roommate along with a bunch of her other stuff, and it’s Not Okay for me to consume.)

Angst swore she’d only added a dash, and I threatened her with Deep Hurting if dinner turned out to be inedible for everyone else in the house besides her. The food turned out to be about at my maximum limit for spiciness, and that was after I’d smothered my entire serving of Mexican rice with a healthy layer of sour cream.

Thus, another interesting phrase is added to my list of “things to question when people use certain terms.” Is cayenne pepper “just” taco seasoning? I think not. And I will not be eating dinners made by those of you who think so.