~West Wing Pearls~
Or- what I learned from the West Wing.

Before I began watching the show, I assumed that I would have trouble understanding much of the content. Of course, some of it does go right over my head, but I have loved learning things from the characters that I fell in love with through the years. This is my ode to all of the inane trivia that I picked up from the show. Some of these are words that I looked up the definitions for, and others are actual facts muttered by the cast.

~There are three word in the English dictionary that begin with the letters DW. 'Dwindle, Dwarf, and Dwell. 
                                                   -Jed Bartlet.

~NaCL (or Sodium chloride) is the scientific term for table salt. 
                                                   -CJ Cregg

~Acetylsalicylic Acid is "Aspirin, my brother". (And, yes, I use this on a weekly basis, and I spelled that from the top of my head, because anything that Abbey Bartlet ever says is etched within my brain.)
                                                   -Dr. Abigail Bartlet

~A 'dillettante', is is a person who loves the fine arts, or, follows an art or a science simply for amusement or in a superficial way; a dabbler.
                                                  -Charlie Young, about the First Lady

~'Post hoc, ergo propter hoc', is a Latin term meaning 'after it, therefore because of it', and "is almost never true".
                                                  -Jed Bartlet.

~There are 14 punctuation marks in standard English grammar. They are period (.), comma (,), colon (:), semi-colon (;), dash (--), hyphen (-), apostrophe ('), question mark (?), exclamation point (!), quotation mark ("), brackets ([, ]), parenthesis ((,)), braces ({,}), and ellipsis (...).
                                                  -Jed Bartlet, and Toby Zeigler.

~More people are killed each year by vending machines than are killed by wolves.
                                                  -CJ Cregg

~Vermeil is guilded silver (which means silver covered in gold). During the 18th century, Jean-Baptiste-Claud Odiot designed many objects of this sort (he was a noted silversmith). These objects were made in England, and during the process, many of the workers were blinded by Mercury. Louis XV, had these objects melted to pay for wars against his people. Thus, they are seen as symbols of the oppression that goverment places on it's people.
                                                 -Abbey Bartlet, and CJ Cregg

~NOW, is the National Organization of Women.
                                                 -Amy Gardner, general cast.

~J'Accuse! Uttered by the President to the First Lady after finding that she had gone behind his back with a statement, it was originally used by author Emile Zola. The author used in it a letter defending a man (Dreyfuss), who was accused of crimes by the government that were unfounded. It is basically a term of accusation.
                                                 -Jed Bartlet

~'Awasiwi Odinak', means "far from the things of man". And yes, I also use this weekly.
                                                 -Jed and Abbey Bartlet