As a business speaker, I am constantly confronted with new buzz words and phrases to learn. Words like “poor evaluations”, “disappointment” and “demand for full refund.”

When a speaker flashes a new piece of jargon up on the Power Point, I immediately try to break it down to its original Latin meaning. (For instance, in Latin, “Power Point” means “the most expensive overhead projector that will ever fail halfway through your speech.”)

A popular new word is “convergence”. This is the coming together of two things to form a third. Like the coming together of Michael Jackson with a plastic surgeon and forming a tree-dwelling albino.

The key to learning a new word is to use it immediately in a sentence. For instance, “Two headlines, 'Killer Spinach!' and 'The Best Way to Torture Terrorists' converged like Mel Gibson and a B’Nai B’rith Happy Hour!”

Which brings me to my point. How come it took us so long to appreciate the torture possibilities of spinach? I hate spinach. You shake a leafy green in my direction, I’m telling you everything I know and several things I don’t.

And the first terrorist I want to go after is that deceitful propagandist, Popeye. And while spinach won’t be effective on him, it sounds like we’re going to have some extra thumb- screws lying around.