I was listening to Focus 580 on WILL yesterday for a few minutes. The guest was Dennis Baron, head of the English Department at the University of Illinois. He was talking about Words of the Year. His choice was "roadside bomb." He said that someone else had said that "blog" was their word of the year. A few minutes later a woman with an elderly-sounding crackle in her voice called the show and asked, "What is that word, blog? I've never heard it used before." The guest went on to explain how the phrase "web log" merged into "blog." He even spelled it for her. It made me chuckle.