I'm Just Part of the Gotcha Media with their concern about words

The other night, Susan and I were having a discussion about McCain and Palin and their liberal use of the word maverick.

I said that I rather resented the use of Maury Maverick's name by a couple of right-wing nuts. After all, among liberal Texans, especially liberal San Antonians, Maverick is a name that evokes some of the finest memories.

Susan hastened to inform me that a maverick is an unbranded cow or horse.

Yes, I said, but I'm sure it comes from the name Maverick first--at least that's what I've always heard.

Since all of this was pillow talk (aren't you guys jealous?), I waited until morning to look it up.

It turns out that we were both right and both a little bit off.

The word maverick does indeed stem from the men of the Maverick clan, but it comes from Samuel Maverick (Maury's grandfather) who was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and a great liberal who, by the way, didn't brand his cattle. So an unbranded cow was often called Maverick's.

But just as I was getting ready to do some research about the Mavericks and write a scathing post, Charles Karel Bouley at Huffington beat me to it.