>Then who is Jesse Sheidlower?

and so I asks Jesse: What in the world is this (other than a rather bad spelling of your name)??

Jesse responds:
Looks like an article I wrote a few years ago for the N.Y. Times, taken and altered without my permission.

and here's a link to the unadulterated(?) version:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Spring_2001/ling001/nytimes_whatisword.html

-joe (mundus vult decipi) friday