RABBLE, n.  The portion of the crowd whose back is towards us.

RADICALISM, n.  The ideology of an igneous id.

RACK, n.  That which compels breaking in a pool-hall.

RAILROAD, n.  A means for escaping from or visiting by one’s past.

RAMSHACKLE, adj.  In the fashion of every pious scold’s childhood home or every bon vivant’s current night’s lodging.

RANCH, n.  A business dependent on access to federal land local tax protests.  A bullish long-term investment in the private property of martyrdom.

RANK, n.  A measure of the deference and attention paid be journalists, investigators and thieves.

RANSOM, n.  Yet another cost associated with children, friends, lovers, spouses and senators.  Rarer than most but no dearer.

RASCAL, n.  A saint in the dark.

RASCALITY, n.  The spirit that animates statues of bronze.  The principle qualification for sainthood.

RASH, n.  Sensible to wind and wave to the exclusion of boulder and battleship.

RATIONAL, adj.  Avid to the point of explanation.

REACH, n.  The distance within which all are blind and each is invisible.

READING, n.  The balance of what one has read, intends to read or claims knowledge of.  In essence, a combined literary savings, credit and retirement account in which the balances connote, rather than material wealth, intellectual superiority, moral authority and a tendency to drink.

REALISM, n.  The cynic’s Shangri-la.

REALITY, n.  The coy mistress of poetry, red in fang and claw.

REALLY, adv.  Ironically

REALPOLITIK, n.  A throat with no tongue behind teeth without lips.

REAR, n.  The part of a politician on which stands are taken.

REASON, n.  The filigree on the Temple of Appetite.

REASONABLE, adj.  Possessed by refined demons.

REBEL, n.  A freethinker unwilling to heed the reins of tradition or tolerate the brakes of conventionality, halted only by an inner obstinacy according to the current fashion.

RECALCITRANT, adj.  Conscientious.

RECEPTION, n.  A joined celebration of revisd misfortune and feigned appreciation at which the ungrateful honor the unworthy with memory, poetry and drink.

RECIPROCATE, v.  To respond justly against an enemy plus or minus.

RECKLESS, adj.  Driving 60 in the central city, 80 in the suburbs, 120 across the open desert or stopping in Nevada.

RECOLLECT, v.  To reharvest a field, hoping for a taller crop.

RECOUNT, v.t.  To describe an occurrence to someone who wasn't there either.

REDEEMED, adj.  Restored to exploitability.

REDUNDANT, adj.  Redundant.

REFINEMENT, n.  A pet name for irrelevance.

REFORM, n.  The process of streamlining the Government's work by renaming the buildings where it is prevented. Origami with parchment.

REFRESHING, adj.  Corrosive.

REGAL, adj.  Called to convenience.

REGRESS, v.i.  To circle the sun.

REGRET, v.  To recall the beauty, hopes and dreams of youth over a veggie-burger.

REINCARNATION, n.  An eternal sequence of heroics culminating in a disappointing present.

REJUVENATE, v.  To corrupt next door.

RELATIVE, n. A parasite with the right of first refusal.

RELATIVE, adj.  Legal rather than rhetorical.

RELAXATION, n.  Idleness earned in a long week of frantic shirking.

RELAY, n.  An event in which a baton is passed until it reaches an illustrious team-mate or an invisible enemy.

RELEASE, v.t.  To delete.

RELENT, v.i. To be found out.

RELENTLESS, adj. Well towards the back.

RELENTLESSNESS, n. The source of attraction to an enemy, repulsion from a friend, or recognition of a neighbor.

RELENTLESSLY, adv. As described by a fellow non-participant.

RELIABLE, adj. Conceivable.

REMINISCE, v.i.  To serenade distant angels and tempt their pitchforks.

REMINISCENCE, n.  The mining of fantasy for the smelter of history.

REPARATION, n.  A pledge within Congress to civility without.

REPUBLICAN, n.  An American Partisan committed to a government at, to and upon the people.

RESCUE, v.t.  To preserve for future calamity.

RESOLUTE, adj.  Insular, indifferent and in charge.

RESOLUTION, n.  A plank of certainty joining two calendar years, bridging folly and doubt.

Twenty-oh-eight might be the year

I get myself fitted for focals

The better to watch you with, my dear,

Because listening's driving me loco.

I suppose it is time a man of my age,

Learned to stop spending and save.

I'll be the master of credit and wage,

And of myself, as servant and slave.

Maybe i'm ready, on this trip round the sun,

That I plan for my workdays and weekends;

Frivolity being just one form of fun,

And discipline a game of pretend.

January's always a good month to inquire,

And contemplate new resolutions.

The eleven to come can bring back the fire

And prevent our jumping to conclusions.

RESOURCEFUL, adj.  Remorseless.

RESPLENDENT, adj.  Painted, draped and drawn for maximum substance.

RESTRAINT, n.  That from which a criminal flees and for which a citizen votes.

RETALIATION, n.  Pious revenge.

RETALIATION, n.  A reaction to an anticipated assault.

REVELATION, n.  The step between action and perjury.

REVERENCE, n.  A suspension of skepticism.  Chewing quietly while another speaks.

REVERIE, n.  The quiet enfolding the heart while making a racket.

REVERSAL, n.  A partial correction.

REVERSIBLE, adj.  One-Dimensional.

REVISION, n.  Refreshed folly.

REVOLUTION, n.  Social progress rinsed of illegality with the blood of judges.

RHUBARB, n.  A vegetable stewed by the simple with strawberries and embittered with its own virtue.  Legend holds that the rhubarb grows wherever the pious achieve high office.

RIBALD, adj.  Bawdy, bowed, bald, bad or balled.

RIBBING, n. The light-hearted jest of a friend who has found the heart and sharpened the blade.

RICARDO, DAVID, n.p.  A british economist who hypothesized the laws of comparative advantage and literal disadvantage.

RICHTER SCALE, n.  A logarithmic system for accurately making a measure of the magnitude of whole mountain shaking.

RICOCHET, n..  A second chance at accuracy.

RID, adj.  Relieved temporarily.

RIDDANCE, n.  The onset of remorse.

RIDE, v.t.  To empower.

RIDICULOUS, adj.  Bearing the poise of an economist baking or a poet dancing.

RIFF-RAFF, n.  Common snobs.

RIFLE, n.  The long form of a syllogism.

RIGAMAROLE, n.  The elaboration of a complex outcome with no input.

RIGHTEOUS, adv.  Precisely lustful.

RIGHTEOUSNESS, n.  The self-portrait of prurience.

RIGID, n.  An undiscounted show or an uninflated phone bill.

RIGOR, n.  The fortitude needed to pursue a discipline of inconsidered repitition and perpetual ambiguity.

RITUALISM, n.  The discipline of the devout non-believer.

ROAD, n.  Home to the misplaced, displaced and ornery.

ROGUE, n.  The aspiration of all the world’s gentlemen.

ROMANCE, n.  Horror’s future, worship’s past and the neighbor’s present.

ROOMY, adj.  Big enough to move about but too small for one more as a hotel room, walk-in closet or the United States.

ROPE, n.  The accessory in which independent thinkers are most persuasive.

ROSE, n.  A source for attar, thorns and potpourri of cliché.

ROSTRUM, n.  A platform for the public humiliation, torture and execution of the truth.

ROUNDABOUT, adj. or adv.  Following the shortest course from a great idea to a conclusion.

RUBBISH, n.  British garbage or American pretense.

RURAL, adj.  Innocent from 30,000 feet above.

RUSH, v.i.  To stop and smell the roses by the dozen.

RUSTY, adj.  Corroded from neglect rather than eroded from use.