A meme squirt by Greg van Eekhout

Phetaphizer. A single word. That means nothing. Nothing at all.

Not yet, anyway.

This is a true story. Heard it on Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story," so it's gotta be true. In 19th century Ireland there lived a theatre impresario and a newspaper editor. "No medium influences the people more than theatre" proclaims the former.

"You're loopy," counters the latter. "The written word remains supreme."

An experiment is devised. The newspaper man prowls the town that night, painting a word -- a nonsense word, a made-up word -- on every available surface. Houses, fences, trees, churches, dogs and pigs. Nothing's safe. And the next morning, as the good townspeople awake, that word twines its way into their neural nets. They have no choice in the matter, mind you. The light hits their retinas, and whamma-zamma-zoom, that word's there forever.

You know that invented nonsense word. It's still there, a funny little word, and a hearty little meme. It's the word, "Quiz."

Quiz.

Phetaphizer.

A single word.

That means nothing.

Nothing at all.