91. connoisseur (noun) an informed and astute judge in matters of taste; expert He sniffer the cork of the wine bottle with the self-assurance of a connoisseur
92. contentious (adjective) argumentative; quarrelsome; casuing controversy or disagreement Some of the elemtns of the book The Bell Curve are highly contentious
93. contrite (adjective) regretful; penitent; seeking forgiveness She gave the parole board and the victim's family a contrite apology.
94. convention (noun) a generally agreed-upon practice or attitude Ancient Greek actors had a convention of wearing masks during plays.
95. convoluted (adjective) complex or complicated. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who drew convoluted machines (involving things like candles buring through ropes, mice chasing cheese, bowling balls, etc) for performing simple tasks
96. credulous (adjective) tending to believe too readily; gullible She was so credulous that she believed everything she read.
97. culpable (adjective) deserving blame The courts will find Ken Lay culpable
98. cynicism (noun) an attitude or quality of of beleif that all people are motivated by selfishness She noted, with cynicism, that celebrities don't fund charities anonymously
99. dearth (noun) smallness of quantity or number; scarcity; a lack We suffered from the region's dearth of peanut butter, and ate our sandwiches only with jelly
100. decorum (noun) polite or appropriate conduct or behavior After reading Miss Manners, I attempted to act with decorum
101. demur (verb) to question or oppose I suggested we go back to my place for some drinks, but the lady politely demurred.
102. derision (noun) scorn, ridicule, contemptuous treatment Originally, her idea to run a car on vegitable oil was met with derision, but now we run our car on soybean oil
103. desiccate (verb) to dry out or dehydrate; to make dry or dull Her edits fixed my grammer but also completely dessicated my document
104. diatribe (noun) a harsh denunciation Dr. Laura launched into yet another diatribe against one of her callers - the third or fourth such diatribe that hour
105. didactic (adjective) intended to teach or instruct Gerda Malaperis is a didactic text by Claude Piron. The story isn't very good, but you do learn a lot of Esperanto.

Usage:

I started to tell her it was a case of mistaken identity, but Shelia ground her high heel into my foot. I recognized this tatic as didactic.

"There's been a real dearth of you around here. You didn't even call." The cat-suited woman said.

I tried to look contrite, hoping Shelia would give me a clue.

Shelia rose to the occasion. "JK, we meet at last." She held out her hand to shake.

JK gave Shelia a contentious look, but spoke to me instead, "I suppose she is the reason you haven't been around?" She jerked her thumb at Shelia.

"Oh! Not at all!" I demurred. "I've been an unwilling guest of Dr. Cool."

Jk laughed with derision. "How credulous do you think I am?"

"Darling," I thought fast, "I'm culpable for clumsiness only. I foolishly fell into a trap. But at no time did I stop thinking of you."

Jk launched into a diatribe, pointing out any and all of Mr. Anderson's sins. she pointed out each fault as if she was a connoisseur of shortcomings. I could barely maintian my decorum during the onslaught, and I wasn't even the intended target.

I tried desperately to think up any excuse, no matter how convoluted in fear she might push us into the mutant corn. But I knew she would only react with cynicism to anything I might say.

Finally, Shelia just interrupted her, "What do you do with highly caustic corn?"

JK halted, mid-rant, "We desiccate it and mail it to Flagstaff."

Shelia said, "To Acme toxic waste, right? I read a research article about it, but it seemed like the article had been desiccated before publishing."

JK said, "I think research articles are like that by convention. Here, get in my dune buggy and I'll take you to our secret lair."

It was the same dune buggy Dr. Cool had captured us in earlier. Was this another trap?

Day 6