My Good Friend, Bob Basler, tries. He really does. He’ll take questions from anybody, and research them ’til his little fat fingers are bleeding. Bob will sleep on it – sometimes for 12-14 hours – and then write a cogent, precise, honest reponse.

But sometimes he just can’t win. It was a straightforward question:

Blog Guy, you seem to know a lot about the language. I saw the word “devotee” a couple of days ago, and I wonder what it means.

Bob responded about the roots of the word and the source for his information:

Photo captions. They teach us a lot about words. Check out these pictures, where “devotees” are walking on burning coals.

The questioner was not pleased and asked for a referral to another blog.

Bob said he couldn’t think of one.

So much for Good Friends taking care of each other.