This is a pretty minor example of this scenario.

But maybe you will know what I'm talking about.

For years, my wife and I would refer to various inconsequential afflictions as "the mange."

Yes, we knew the mange is a real thing and that it's no joke. But we must have liked the sound of it when used to describe, say, a minor, localized rash.

Then, sometime after I wrote a feature story about the 1989 centennial of the Washington Grange, we started saying "the grange."

No disrespect to the organization was intended. Again, we just liked the sound of it.

So anyway, just this week, my wife, her sister and her mother were in Florida. It was humid. Really humid.

At some point, my wife alluded to the possibility of coming down with "the grange."

Her sister must have thought she was nuts. "You mean 'the mange'"? she asked.

Yes. Of course. The mange.

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