Fructify was one of those, a word imported from better times. When Mario Cuomo was the governor of New York State, he’d used it in a conversation with the former Senator Patrick Moynihan. She’d been driving somewhere, too stoned to follow the context, when the word blazed out of the radio. She was surprised a politician had the courage to use it. But that was a long time ago, when the public would tolerate unusual language.