My Quirky Word Fixation

This is driving me nutty today. In my local newspaper, there was an article regarding a widow and a widower who married. The article stated that they were " both widowed in 2006". Seems to me the better sentence would have been "both lost their spouses in 2006", but since they went with widowed, it's bugging me.

So I looked up "widow" in my spiffy new dictionary, Merriam Webster Collegiate, 11th edition. Much to my surprise, "widow: to cause to become a widow or widower", so maybe it's not all that big a deal. But it still is bugging the daylights out of me.

What about you?

I found this video, I wanted to share with you. It's Lyle Lovett's version of Flying Shoes, written by Townes Van Zandt. The first time I heard this song, it took root in my heart and refuses to leave.