Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: caroline@sqn.com (caroline laskow)
Subject: words ending in -uum
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Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 16:41:06 GMT
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this is from a third-grade brain teaser that i never figured out:  
besides vacuum, what other word in the english language ends in -uum?

cheers,
i was driving north b/w santa cruz and san francisco (forgot the name 
of the hwy), late one summer night last august, with a light mist all 
around us -- we were the only cars on the road -- when the ENTIRE 
WESTERN/left HALF OF THE SKY LIGHT UP FOR ABOUT THREE SECONDS.  i'm not 
kidding.  it was only on the west, it lit up everything around us, and 
was totally silent.  i was sure it was a nuclear explosion and that we 
were all going to die.  we in the car were dumbstruck when, about ten 
seconds later, the exact same thing happened again  we started 
screaming and laughing and trying to figure it out.  

my friend suggested it was lightning through the fog, which sounded 
reliable as there were no aliens or wwIII at the evening's end.  but 
i've always wondered what sort of phenomenon took place, if not the 
lightning.  we never actually drove through a storm, but we might have 
just missed it.???

cheers,
caroline
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