If you work in a newsroom these days, things are pretty grim. The newspaper industry is in a flat spin, trying to get its bearings. Staffers are now enjoy an odd combination of emotions - paranoia, angst, frustration, sadness and even a little hope every now and then. (But not often.)

So, like on my favorite TV show M*A*S*H, we look to the little escapes to help us get through the day. No, I'm not talking about the little emergency bottle of Jack Daniels in everyone's drawer - I'm talking about good, clean word fun. If you work at a newspaper - words are everywhere. Headlines, ledes, captions - heck, we coudn't have a newspaper without words! I digress. A few weeks ago, I offered the staffers at our humble newspaper a cookie. That's right, a chocolate chip cookie. But, in exchange, they had to leave their favorite word.

This is a list of those words:

Bumberchute
Ascertain
Skank
Thank you
Elegant
Brouhaha
Is
Are
The
Snow
Cowabunga
Moist
Nekkid
Oxymoron
Lobster
Sustainability
Cat
Torture
Employed
Peaceful
Geodesic
Rugburn
Impertinent
Elvis
Tebow
Bird

I think some of them just wanted the cookies.