Trifecta

Yesterday I was sitting at the beloved Cafe Rio in dear, dear Provo, and eavesdropping on two BYU Marriage Prep majors whine about their professors. One young woman was complaining about her slightly Liberal instructor, "He's a such a socialist! I mean, he's all, 'hug a tree' and 'save the whales'! In fact, that should be his trifecta: 'Hug a tree, save a whale.'"

I had to actually stop myself from turning around and demanding to hear her explanation on what is so wrong about hugging trees and saving whales? Oh, yeah, and 'trifecta'? I don't think that word means what you think it means honey. First off, even if you have no clue what the word really means all you have to do is look at it for three seconds to guess at the following: tri-, meaning, three, uh, you have only two, you're missing one. Secondly, it's a bet. One can't bet "Hug a tree, save a whale," unless you're betting that those are his top two priorities in life, and in that order. In which case, it would be your trifecta. That is, if you had another priority to make it three. This way it's just a difecta, and I don't think those will get you much on the horse track.

trifecta: n - a type of bet, especially on horse races, in which the bettor must select the first three finishers in exact order. (dictionary.com)