great gams!

Celebrity magazines apparently feel that, in a single-page feature about stars and their great legs, it would be inappropriate to use the word "legs" more than, say, twice.

Hence:

• stems
  
• gams
  
• sticks

Really? Mary-Kate is "displaying her sticks"? Is she playing drums?

It is not necessary to thesaurize your prose to keep from ever repeating a noun. For instance, if the New York Times runs an article about poverty, the writer might use the word "poverty" thirty or forty times. It's not a big deal. It is fine to mention the topic of an article repeatedly throughout the article.

If I write a blog post, on my comedy blog, about comedy, I might refer to "comedy" at really any time I am talking about, well, comedy. I do not feel the need to mix it up with references to "comicalness, "buffoonery," "jesting," "drollery," "schtick," or "cracking wise."

Dear celebrity magazines -- Dita Von Teese has "gams." Everyone else has legs. Thank you.