As I’ve mentioned before, I love word play, in all forms, from a good game of Scrabble to a twisted ending on a bad joke. So I was delighted last week when I sent a simple business email to a friend of mine, and for the next few minutes we flipped thematic puns back and forth in rapid succession.

In her first reply, she stated that something was “not her sediment” and I responded that I got what she was saying, but didn’t she actually mean “sentiment” and wasn’t autocorrect a dastardly enhancement to the technological age?

Nope, she answered, I was just testing you. It’s sediment, and you can take that to the (river)bank. It’s rock solid but don’t take it for granite. Sanderiffic and gravelicious. It’s a boulder statement than I’ve ever made. It’s schist mica way of being mudderly amusing.

Not to be outdone, I told her she was my kind of gal, metamorphic and igneous.

To which she said, “Thanks! You rock!”

“Leaving no stone unthrown, I see,” I shot back.

“But of quartz,” she wrote.

I told her if she kept this up I would wash her mouth out with soapstone, which is also known as talc-schist, and she wouldn’t want THAT in her mouth, now would she?

She said, “Oh! Ha-ha! Agate it! Then asked if that were a concrete threat, acknowledging that she was running out of rock and mineral puns.

I replied, “O-pal, I think your geologic background is impressive, but I might be jaded.”

At that point she informed me her lunch break was over… But now that I’ve seen this side to her, I wood be petrified to engage her in a friendly game of Scrabble.

Puns, of course, intended.