The 501 Neurotics on the freeway

COMMENTARY

HANABA MUNN WELCH

Raise your hand if you think you might be neurotic.

Raise your other hand if you don’t know what it means. It’s a crazy word. As a child, I wondered what it meant when my mother said it. Now my husband says it. I’m still wondering.

Except I looked it up, so I sort of know. The catchall word peaked in popularity in the early 1950s (when my mother was saying it in front of m…