FINICAL

My  lunch group was discussing differing food choices and I said that I was lucky because my husband was not a "finical eater";  one of the women immediately challenged me, saying, 
"That's NOT a word."  I said, "Of course it is;  it's like finicky."  She answered, "Then why didn't you just say finicky?"  I laughed and admitted, "I just read it last night in an O. Henry story and wanted to use it in conversation."

It was delightful to share favorite O. Henry stories with group members.

See below an article I published in 2012:

                               THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF

Today, at Kroger, an announcement came over the PA system, "Mrs. Smith, your grandchild is at the Self Check Out Line." (The name was NOT Mrs. Smith, but I wouldn't want to give her real name and publicly embarrass a grandmother for misplacing her grandchild!)

Shortly, I heard a child screaming and I asked the woman next to me, who appeared to be in my age group, "Did you read O. Henry's The Ransom Of Red Chief when you were in school?" She said that she had not, but she had read The Gift Of The Magi. I gave her a brief synopsis of the story: two crooks came up with a plan to kidnap the child of the town's wealthiest man. They ended up having to pay the father to take back the kid because he was so bad and the kid was known as Red Chief.

The child's screaming escalated and the woman asked, "Wonder how much she'd pay?"