The weekly word idea remains cultivated for now & hasn't seemed to onerous so far..

Carrion

car·ri·on (kār'ē-ən)
-noun
1. dead and putrefying flesh.
2. rottenness; anything vile.
-adjective
3. feeding on carrion.

The Back Story
My good friend Tim has been pretty engrossed in his upcoming novel for the last few months, almost lost in the fine-tuning process. Though he seems pretty stressed in recent times I must admit I almost envy him. What he's doing is an admirable thing. He has put aside some savings from his previous career and taken the time out to focus on living out this dream. It's a high-risk investment, it certainly takes guts -- & money ;) .. the latter part is what I'm struggling with.

Anyway, for the entire time I've know him, he's been pretty protective of this current novel (& rightly so), but over the last week, finally he let me read the first few paragraphs.

It's little enough to have my interest peaked, but not enough to really have any idea where the story could possibly go. Yet being the ignorant man with a small vocabulary, within this little extract I did manage to come across a word which I almost pointed out as a typo, instead I asked and learnt the meaning. Now I know what that description in that extract was saying about the protagonist's career choice: Law.

I wasn't too surprised to find a dedicated Wikipedia article on Carrion: It refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters, or scavengers, include hyenas, vultures, .. you get the point. I also manage to use the word carrion when describing the meat pies in Sweeney Todd to somebody. Actually I forced it into conversation but we're all allowed that to some degree.