adversity aversion

the words adverse and averse can cause confusion and are often erroneously interchanged. Both are adjectives with negative meanings, but they are not interchangeable; they are subtly differentiated by interest vs inclination:

• adverse (adj) - unfavorable. used in the "against one's best interest" case. base word for adversity and adversary.
  
• averse (adj) - having repugnance or opposition of mind. used in the "against one's personal inclinations" case. base word for aversion.

these derived words (adversity/aversion) are the best mnemonic for deciding which to use, and have cured me of my bad habit of saying things like "I am not adverse to medicine with no averse effects."

sahara sundae

i grew up with the mnemonic that you want "two scoops of 's' in dessert!" to remember that dessert has an extra 's' and the big sandy place, a desert, does not.

a friend of mine told me another that made me chuckle: "'desserts' spelled backwards is 'stressed'"

etaoin shrdlu

for anyone raised on wheel of fortune, you may or may have not come to the same conclusion that i did. i wondered "why do they give the contestant R,S,T,L,N, and E for the final puzzle? what is special about these letters?" combining my young knowledge that these were all worth one point in scrabble, i figured that they gave you these letters because they were all common letters, and i further assumed these must be the most common letters (excepting the vowels, which i knew were mostly more common but would make WoF puzzles too easy)