I get by with a little help from my fiends (word fiends, that is) — the readers who send me delightful dollops of lore, levity and lunacy.

—"Had had" ha-ha — George Takei emails: "Why is English so much fun? Because this sentence makes perfect sense: 'All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome.'"

Indeed, because "had" is not only an action verb meaning "to possess" or "to exert" but also a helping verb indicating the past perfect tense, this sentence means that all the faith he had once possessed had exerted no influence.

After I reread George's message, I was amazed at the effect his "had had had had" had had on me.

—"Thee"-ology — John Strother of Princeton, N.J., points out that a current TV ad for Geico auto insurance uses the wrong archaic form of "you" in its punch line: "Madest thou look." The pronoun is the object of "madest," so it should be "thee" (the objective case of "thou"), i.e., "Madest thee look."

—Curious "Curate" — After reading my recent column decrying the trendy use of "curate" as a general term for "supervise" or "manage," Colleen Fitzpatrick of Simsbury, Conn., sent me a newspaper's help-wanted ad for the position of "breaking news curator." Remember when curators worried only about breaking vases?

—Homogram Hilarity — Faithful reader Mark Friden of Cranberry Lake, N.Y., has singlehandedly invented a new category of words he calls "homograms" — words that not only sound alike (homophones), but that are also anagrams (words that contain the same letters).

The homograms Mark has snared so far include bear/bare, meet/mete, hose/hoes, ware/wear, tear/tare (a type of weed or a deduction from gross weight to obtain net weight), axle/axel (a jump in figure skating), and rose/roes (fish eggs).

—Game on! — Mark's homogram pair "rose/roes" reminds me of a palindrome I invented a few years ago: "Red roes revere reverse order." (I confess that I'm particularly proud of that one because its content refers to the definition of a palindrome — a word or sentence that reads the same in reverse order.)

Can you come up with some homograms or palindromes of your own? Please send them to me so I can publish them in my column. I'll mail a copy of my book "Word Up! — A Lively Look at English" to the person who submits the best entry in each category, so include your mailing address as well. Tallyho!

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.