Lewis M. Gediman, retired head of a marketing research and consulting firm, is the author of A Turn for the Verse: Limericks with a Twist and Semantricks: A Dictionary of Words You Thought You Knew, in which his breadth of vision and depth of thinking are driven by his guiding principle: “I never met a word I couldn’t distort.” He lives in Stamford, Connecticut, where he takes frequent long walks and occasional umbrage.