Paparazzi

 

I don't know about you, but I have trouble remembering how to spell this word.

I know there's at least one double letter — but which one?

Or are there two?

Last night the penny dropped.

Because what other association can anyone have with a double z than ZZ Top?

So when you try to remember how to spell paparazzi, from now on all you have to do is imagine them trying to get a candid shot of... ZZ Top.

Two z's, two Z's, and Bob's your uncle.

FunFact: Giuseppe Paparazzo, the celebrity-chasing photographer in Fellini's epic 1960 film "La Dolce Vita," was the real name of one of the photographers for the gossip columnists of Via Veneto back in the days of Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.

Fellini thus knew the name and used it for his character, coining the nickname for the whole category.