…cut the blue wire…the black is the ground…wrap the optic fibre around the exposed red wire…

"Don?"

Don looked up. "What?"

Mikey leaned over the sofa, blue eyes sparkling. "You know how the word slippery means, like… slippery?"

Don rolled his eyes. "Yes…"

"And, like, a slipper's a kinda shoe…"

"So?"

"Well, shouldn't slippery mean, like… slipper-like?"

"What?"

"Well, crappy means like crap, and crabby means like crabs… you know… a moody crab. Like if Raph was a crab, he'd be a crabby crap. He'd be a crappy crabby crab. With PMS! Wait, do crabs get PMS? That'd be so gross, 'cause then…

Don decided he should probably stop listening before his brain melted.

…connect the red wire to the power source…and the blue wire to the Boolean operator…

"DON!"

The pliers jerked in his hands, and he nearly chopped a finger off.

"You weren't listening! Come on dude, you know I'm an awesome talker!"

Don sighed. "Are you still asking why the words slipper and slippery have different meanings?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, it's probably just the way language has evolved from olden-times colloquial slang terms and historic preconceptions of what a word mean, and even what a slipper is. Or perhaps the Greek and Latin words are similar…"

Don looked up. Mikey's eyes had glazed over.

"Say it in English please, bro?"

"Ask me again."

"Why do slipper and slippery mean different stuff?"

"Because."