Date: Mon Mar 5 02:12:10 EST 2001
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fletcherize
X-Bonus: People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within. -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist and author (1926- )

Fletcherize (FLECH-uh-ryz) verb tr., intr.

To chew food thoroughly.

[From the practice of chewing food many many times as advocated by Horace
Fletcher, U.S. nutritionist (1849-1919).]

"Dinner table conversation comes to a halt as people around the nation
Fletcherize."
Morsels from Diet History, Florida Today, Oct 19, 1999.

The idea of Fletcherizing invites the question, "Is too much of a good thing
better?" Horace Fletcher proposed that one should grind food once for each
tooth in the mouth. That implies that we masticate each bite of pizza as
many as 32 times. I'd rather stick with the idea that each byte has eight
bits. At any rate, Mr. Fletcher, the art dealer turned nutritionist, did
earn the moniker `The Great Masticator,' for his popular book at the time
and got his name into the dictionary. This week we'll look at more such
words, eponyms, coined after people from fact and from fiction. -Anu