"Gumption"; "Pawky"; "Smidgen"; "FLUKE"; "Flummox"

 
       Fluke as "an unlikely chance occurrence" was at first "an accidentally successful stroke at billiards or pool," but no one knows why, or what the root is.

       This fluke is unrelated to two other flukes, one of them flatfish or flatworms from German flach "flat," and the other being either of the lobes of a whale's tale, perhaps because they're flat.  Uncertainty is rampant.  "Just check it in the dictionary" will not net you certitude.

       To me it seemed a fluke that "fluke" and "flummox" appeared within a couple inches of one another on the same page in my dictionaries.  I was glad to see it!  (Continued tomorrow)