Safi had a passion for regional words, which she would throw into conversation whenever possible—a one-woman popularization society. That day had begun with her gleefully announcing that the politician on the front page of The Times was positively “crambazzled,” explaining (glancing rather too directly at Simon, Martha had thought) that it was an old Yorkshire word for looking prematurely aged from excess drinking. Then again, Safi had added, she was a little too familiar with “crapulence”—the hungover companion to crambazzlement—herself.
