Cookiestare

Those cookies you bought the other day are sitting in a bowl on top of the counter next to the stove. They are the expensive kind where each cookie is sealed in its own package.

You pledged to other members of your family not to eat any of the cookies until after you have lost 15 pounds. Since there is no chance on this Earth that you will lose 15 pounds, you walk by the cookies every day staring at them intently, wishing and hoping no one counted them so you can steal one, unwrap it and eat it behind the garage.

For reasons unknown, smart people get these terms wrong all of the time. With patience and care, they can learn to use the words properly, making their communication clearer and more precise.