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Aeiou (pronounced A-E-I-O-U): Muse of Software; tidy, orderly, never talks.

Bo: Muse of Factoids; a cow.

Bunnies, hot pink: In Muse Mail, an annoying symbol

the editors insert to replace passages in which readers debate which is better, cats or dogs.

Cat counter: An odometer-like device Chad installed in Muse Mail in March 2002 to track the number of requests for articles about cats—more than 8 billion by the time the July/August 2002 "cat" issue appeared.

Chad: Muse of Hardware. Tinkerer and inventor extraordinaire.

Crraw: Muse of Bad Poetry, a crow. Pwt’s quarry. Interprets for Aeiou.

D. L.: Editor-in-chief, queen bee, mother hen, keeper of the flame, Good Witch of the Midwest, and Muse to the Muses.

Devil: Kokopelli’s puppy. First appeared in October 2001, after Crraw and Aeiou tried to make Koko nicer by tricking him into thinking he liked dogs. (It didn’t work.) Keeps falling into the FMP.

Dog counter: Chad installed it in July/August 2002 to tally requests for articles about dogs. It blew up at the start of the special dog issue (November/December 2002).

Doughnuts: Feather’s favorite food. He grows them on trees.

FMP: The Fan Mail Pit, final resting place of the mountains of letters the Muses receive from their legions of admirers, devotees, aficionados, acolytes, and padawans.

Factoid: Not just a Muse word, but

an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print;
a brief and usually trivial news item.

We're not sure which kind of factoid Bo represents. Both, maybe.

Feather: Muse of Plants. Sweet but a bit dim; always falls for Koko’s tricks.

Flamablamablous: An adjective one Muse reader (Leah T., 14, Wisconsin) introduced in the November/December 2004 issue to describe how big a fan she is. Another reader thinks it's related to "flammable" and suggests that it means "so unbelievably wonderful that it could quite possibly combust spontaneously."

Intelligent Air: A two-way global communications network, invented by Chad and programmed by Aeiou, with which the Muses watch Earth and whisper advice to people in need. Some of the dust particles you see swirling in sunbeams are actually components of IA.

Coconino County, Arizona

Kokonino County: Home of the Muses. Looks as if it could be just a pie (or brick) throw away from Coconino County, Arizona, the setting of George Herriman's immortal comic strip Krazy Kat.

Cartoon Coconino

Kokopelli: Muse of Tunes and Tricks. In the American Southwest, the supernatural trickster-flutist has figured in Native American legends and rock art for thousands of years. On joining Muse, he added pie-throwing to his arsenal of pranks.

"Milton Rupines": Pen name of a Lord of the Rings–hating reader whose letter in the May/June 2004 Muse Mail section launched a thousand irate responses.

Mimi: Muse of Getting Along with People. In Australian aboriginal legends, mimis are shy but usually helpful and friendly invisible spirits who taught early human beings useful skills and crafts.

Pies: Kokopelli’s weapon of choice, which he hurls with humiliating accuracy.

Planet Slippery: A world without friction; an awful place to be. Introduced in the May/June 2003 issue's article on perpetual motion. Located in the star system Wenwet.

Proton accelerator: A device for creating and aiming beams of protons, positively charged particles found in the nuclei of atoms. Chad makes proton accelerators out of paperclips. Physicists at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania call their proton accelerator the p+ shooter ("p" for proton, "+" for positive—get it?).

Pwt: Muse of Animals, born in ancient Egypt. Usually seen trying to catch Crraw in a net. We're not sure where the name comes from, but in the Coptic language, a descendant of ancient Egyptian, “pwt” means "to run, flee, or go"—something Pwt spends a lot of time doing.

Tenrecs: Pointy-snouted insect-eating mammals of Madagascar, some species of which are spiny and tailless. After a Muse Mail letter mentioned them in January 2002, readers became obsessed with them. The magazine finally ran an article about them in May/June 2004.

Urania: Muse of Astronomy, the only holdover from the original Greek Muses. Kokopelli’s favorite pie-throwing victim.

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