Snowbird

Who uses it: Realtors and RV sales personnel
What it means: People of a certain age who live in the northern half of the country, but travel south for the winter.
How you can use it: To describe your travel plans.

My friend Carla, in Singapore, reports that her family took a walk in the rainforest today, and that the temperature there is 26. That's not so much warmer than here, where the temperature is 7, except that she's measuring in Celsius degrees and I am measuring in Fahrenheit. In Celsius, our temperature is -13, which sounds pretty dramatic.

Anyway, Dizzy and I are headed south today, as far as Washington, D.C. My apartment is not as clean as I'd like it to be, and I did not finish two projects I wanted to complete before leaving, but that's how it goes. Fingers crossed that today's traffic won't be too miserable.

I leave you with an etiquette question to ponder. When Sir Paul McCartney got married, his wife became, by courtesy, "Lady McCartney." Now that Sir Elton John is married, does his husband get a comparable title? The expert I consulted -- indirectly, thanks to the good offices of Sue Schulz -- says that husbands of female knights (Dames of the British Empire) don't get called anything special, which seems unfair. Perhaps it's time to correct this, or just do away with the silliness of titles altogether.