The word “abstemious” is one that usually comes to mind only because (apparently sharing this feature only with “facetious”) it has all five English vowels, once each, in alphabetical order. I had always assumed it derived from the word “abstain.” But no! “Abstain” is the Latin negative prefix ab- followed by tenere, “to have” — you don’t have what you abstain from. But to be abstemious is specifically to abstain from alcohol. What comes after ab is actually temetum, a Latin word whose ultimate origin is the proto-Indo-European temH, or “darkness” (i.e. what you experience when you drink too much temetum.)

Anyway, no better time to listen to EBN OZN’s wondrous one hit, “AEIOU Sometimes Y,” which is apparently the first pop song ever recorded entirely on a computer. “Do I want to go out?”