Dear Humans,

I bought donuts yesterday morning and I had a vocabulary problem. I wasn’t exactly sure what you call all those variations of fried dough and sugar and I was left doing a lot of pointing, grunting, and gesturing. 

I knew long john, of course. (Though I think some people call them bars.) But there’s a variety of long johns. Cream filled or not cream filled. Chocolate, vanilla, or maple icing. And I knew the twist, but there was a cinnamon twist, glazed twist, or raspberry twist. 

We live in a rich world of abundance. Variety is the rule. To navigate that world–to fill our box with the donuts that we want–we have to have the words to describe it and communicate it with others. So we use precise language, not to be right, but to be clear.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt