Last month there was an accident in front of our home. Someone apparently fell asleep at the wheel, and drifted across the center line, into the path of an 18-wheeler.

No one was hurt, but the car was demolished, and the 18-wheeler became a 16-wheeler. It was quite a sight to see. And everyone wanted to see it! There was an awful lot of rubbernecking going on!

Rubbernecking is a fun word that simply means that you are twisting your neck around (as though it were made of rubber) in order to see something interesting. Rubbernecking is a word that is most often used to describe what happens as cars drive by accident scenes. And it's generally frowned upon; rubbernecking can make bad accidents even worse.

But of course, it can be used in other situations; perhaps you can think of some?

And no, contrary to what you might have supposed, rubbernecking is not what happens when Gumby and his girlfriend are making out.