Am I Calvin's Dad or Stephen King?

Here's an actual bedtime conversation with my (then) 5-year-old, many years ago. I know, I'm a terrible parent.

HE:  Dad, I know I need to go to sleep, and I know this is kind of ridiculous, but I'm sort of afraid of bears.

Buffaloed by Buffalo

 Adapted from my original post on Google+, back when we were allowed to have nice things.

WARNING: English ahead.

One of the difficult things about learning a language is understanding that a word may have several different meanings. Sometimes those meanings are so different that they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. And sometimes they're even different parts of speech.

Consider the word buffalo:

buffalo: (n) an ox-like mammal; bison
buffalo: (v) to confuse or intimidate
Buffalo: (n) a port city in New York

OK, three different meanings and two parts of speech. How bad could that possibly be? I'm glad you asked!