A long day's journey into the common lexicon

Where do words come from? What are some of your favorites? The journeys that bring new words into common usage can be really interesting. This time of year, there are a flurry of stories about new words. Merriam Webster's word of the year is w00t, but other candidates include Facebook, locavore (for someone who eats locally produced or prepared foods), and subprime. Here's a great book review that describes the origin of several words. Did you know the search engine Google derives its name from an unintentional misspelling? That jargon actually originally meant the chattering of birds?

Shame on them for not consulting a dictionary?

OK, so you are a legislator and you have been trying to get a bill passed for 20 years with no luck. So rather than using a commonly known word, you use a less well known word that means the same thing, slip your content into a related bill, and it passes. Is this ethical? Are the legislators who didn't read and check the content to blame? The committee chair in question has been stripped of his position, but the bill will probably be signed by the governor, sanctioning midwifery in Missouri for the first time.