I love this, and not just because it so aptly describes the many subtle nuances of the word “dude” (which happens to be a personal favorite of mine), but also because it brings up the point of how different a word’s meaning can be based solely on the way it is said.

One of the biggest problems with blogging is that it is often hard to know what a person is really saying just from her words.  We’re missing the intonations, the facial expressions, the body language.  Sure we try to make ourselves understood with visual cues like italics or bold type or “quotes” or even the occasional (and sometimes obnoxious) em ticon, but even then we can still be misunderstood at times.

All of which leads me to wonder how many wars might have been prevented by a properly interpreted “dude”?

Dude.