what's in the water

anna pointed it out a couple days ago reading the newest new yorker, the copy with the now well-known michelle and barack cover, in two separate back-to-back pieces [fold the magazine over and they nearly touched] and today i saw it again on silliman's blog, while again i saw it used in two articles in today's paper.

today's word it would seem is cipher. sure it ain't an uncommon word but i can't recall seeing it used as often as i've seen it in the past couple days.