Palimpsests and Bailiwicks

That day after I wrote my last post, I was reading an article by Edward Hoagland in Harper's Magazine. I don't know this writer but throughout his article, I was stumbling on words for which I had no idea of the meaning and in most cases couldn't even deduce an approximate understanding through the context. And even after looking in the dictionnary, I sometimes still did not understand what the word was doing in that sentence. Palimpsests. Parochial. Discombobulated. Beseeching. Hoodwinks. Bailiwicks. Welts. Dotage. Just to name a few that sent me to the pages of my Webster. Funny how life works. You write something about (against) dumbing down the vocabulary in a text and the next day you come across an article sprinkled with new vocabulary! It was lots of fun though I did begin to think, after a few pages, that he was pushing it a little bit. Palimpsests? Bailiwicks? I don't think I can work those into an ordinary conversation over lunch!