that's what I get for volunteering

This meme is from Kelly over at I Hate Cows. Post a comment, and I’ll give you a letter. You then write 10 things starting with that letter, explaining why. I signed up, and she gave me the letter Z, can you believe that? Are there even ten words that begin with Z? They have to be English words, right?

1. Zounds! I used to like archaic, um, exclamations like this. Also Ye Gods and Gadzooks. I used them in high school, which might have contributed somewhat to my reputation as a pretentious bitch.
2. Zoos. Make me sad. But I love to see the animals, so I go anyway. Even though the zoo people do their best (with, ahem, sadly limited funds) to make the environment as comfortable as possible for them, it's a wretched existence. I also know that even though they are unhappy, this is their best chance for survival, because their normal habitats are shrinking every day to feed human greed. This makes me even sadder.
3. Zero. What a brilliant concept. Apparently the Indians had it first, but the Arabs brought it to Europe in the 11th century. Yet another priceless contribution from Arab culture. Bet they wish they could take it back and make us all do math with Xs and Ls again, after all the Clash of Civilizations bullshit of the last few years.
4. Zodiac. Skeptical, me, but it's so handy for basic programming exercises. Somewhere out there in the internets I have a script that'll tell you how many of you it takes to change a light bulb, based on your sign.
5. Zipper. Was invented by a Swede. Occasionally I try to use this as evidence that we (Swedes) are smarter than DrBob and his Germans, but it doesn't usually fly. I'm not really all that Swedish anyway, it's just a bigger percentage than any of my other components.
6. Zonker. Totally my hero, and definitely the Doonesbury character I identify with the most.
7. Zaragoza. A city in Spain. I've never been there, but I guess I have to go, now that I've gone and put it on my list.
8. Zoot suit. Still waiting for these to come back into style, as I think they are teh sexy.
9. Umm, Zebras. Are they white with black stripes, or black with white stripes? Oh hell, who cares?
10. Zazzafooky. Check her out. She thought she was turning 35 too, and was just as wrong as you were! Hah, that's whatcha get for giving me such a difficult letter! Nyaah, nyaah.