Dictionary time with Brandon and John

Mayor Brandon Johnson answers questions from reporters at City Hall last Wednesday — the news conference at which he objected to a group of marauding teens being described as a “mob action.” (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)

Readers regularly fall into a trap I call the “Two Definitions Problem.” They know a word means A, but forget it can also mean B,

For instance. On Monday, a reader chided me for referring to a choice between something that might cure you or kill you as “a dilemma.” A mistake, he lectured, because “a dilemma is a situation in which both possible outcomes are bad. ... Precise English is essential to the unambiguous writing for which you’re admired.”