Gnat is doing rhyming:

Pail – Fail!

Right, hon. Fail means you don’t win.

Cane – Fane!

Uh – well, feign is a word. It means you pretend in an evil way.

Cake – Fake! It's hard to describe the gusto she employs to shout out the rhyme. Pride and triumph. FAKE!

Absolutely right. That's a rhyme.

Then she turned over a picture of a duck.

We had a little talk about bad words.

It’s all a minefield. …

Yes, I would imagine it is. Although, what's wrong with "luck", or "tuck", or "muck". Or even "suck"? There's innuendo there, but just ignore it.

I really am fascinated to see what happens with the Lileks/Gnat saga. Will he still be bleating updates on the relationship in ten years time, I wonder?