Have you ever heard the word “fromage?” I believe I had heard it before yesterday, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to remember what it meant. So when I read it, I thought, “Hey, I know of an online dictionary, I’ll just go look it up.” Take a gander at the definition for "fromage" over at Dictionary.com. Fascinating, no? It turns out the generous wordsmiths over there have decided that there are certain words that common folk like us really shouldn’t have free access to, and unless we fork over $3 each month, they’re going to do what they can to keep that word out of our pitiful little lexicon. The really interesting question, it seems to me, is how exactly did they choose which words were worth charging for?
Beyond that, I can only imagine what happens when you let your subscription run out. Perhaps they send out a team of knowledge-sucking specialists to surgically remove those words from your vocabulary? Or if surgery is too risky, I imagine all they have to do is sit you down and make you watch a few episodes of “Married with Children” or something. That oughta do it. “From-age? What was that? Maybe the quality of bein’ from somethin’?”
Maybe while they’re in there they can help you to forget that you subscribed in the first place, just to boost re-subscription rates. Their sales must be skyrocketing!
It’s a kind of French cheese, by the way. Just trying to help.