I love this word: GONER. It is a self-contained cartoon: A person looking down a long street, mouth open in astonishment, hand over eyebrows to shield against the sunlight as a fast-moving vehicle races off into the horizon. GONER contains long lines leading to and from the horizon. GONER contains drafty breezes of exodus — those strange whirlwinds of coolness and warmth that dance in the bewildered wake of an urgent departure. Exhalation of space once occupied, now freshly vacant. GONER contains its own implied exclamation point, making “GONER!” redundant. GONER contains the seed of an ellipsis, which can grow to the full dot dot dot as your personal style allows. Hooray for GONER!
