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"Certain words and phrases captivated him, and he would loop them aloud endlessly: trumpet vine, business, chrysanthemum. "

I want to know more about this idea.

I think we can agree that words like BIZ-en-Ness and CHRYS-ant-THENUM have a strange ring to them compared to the rest of the English language when pronounced aloud. (Also that word, "ALOUD")

From my experience, I'd expect most people as kids had at least one pet words that had nice ring.

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Some people get songs stuck in their heads, I get words or phrases looping over and over. Sometimes I'll get both a song and a word repeating in separate loops at the same time! I think it's a similar mechanism though, it's a lack of closure. I believe they repeat because my brain is looking for connections, or trying to learn something from it. The annoying ones are when I can't remember the ending of a song, so the middle keeps looping over and over. Or if I can't quite remember the definition of a word, very annoying. The best ones are the ones I can remember all of the tune but it surprises me every time.

Edited for clarity.

To me the annoying ones are the ones I can't seem to get rid of, no matter how hard I try. I've got the a short vocal fragment from an Annie Lennox song stuck in my head for days at the moment so I feel very connected to what you just wrote.

Aluminum!

Aluminium!

Good grief, I can't even spell it!

If you're not being sarcastic: http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

Now that was fun, thanks. I find it annoying that I am taught to spell a certain way, but then the British keep reinventing spellings with "s" instead of "z" and adding an "i" in there just Americans on their toes.

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